Who Do You Think You Are?

Who Do You Think You Are?
by Karen Beth Pike, Columnist

"Taking Care"

November 19, 2003

Often this is the beginning of an argument, but I'm asking you to take it into your minds for some serious thought. I've heard a challenge that I'd like to pass along to you. Begin with a blank sheet of paper and write the words "I am…" at the top. Then write ten statements to complete that sentence. Then write ten more. At the end of such a process you are probably writing some pretty revealing things about who and what you are. The next piece of this challenge begins the same way. This time write "I believe…" at the top of the page and do the same work with that beginning to create twenty more statements about who you are in your soul.

The things that we are and the things that we believe are what make us. If we stray from what we are, there is a disconnect in our actions, and usually we get pretty uncomfortable in such a situation. I can use myself as an example here. Before I joined my current Church, I worked in the casino industry. It was a high-paying job with a number of very attractive benefits, and yet there was a part of me that cried out to be released from that kind of work. Not the money handling, but the crushing despair that oozed like poison from the patrons and the staff. An industry that captivates and enslaves the souls of thousands in the name of entertainment cannot be a place that I can participate in any longer. When I left the industry, it was as though a millstone had been lifted from my neck.

What do you believe? This kind of question is seldom asked, and yet it is the hub around which our lives revolve. If you believe in peace, what are you doing to be peaceful in your own life? If you believe in God, do you behave in Christ-like ways toward others, or is it something that you only talk about for an hour or two on Sunday mornings? I wonder how many of us get on our knees and pray for guidance, pray for the blessing of others in need, listen for the answers that come from the still, small voice and then get off our knees and take action to obey that voice?

Where does your faith reside? Are there people in your life that you can count on? Are you that kind of person to other people? Reliability is a rare and wonderful thing in our society these days. Do your part to be the kind of person that others can look up to and can depend on to do the things that you commit to do. We need leaders today, perhaps more than we ever have before, become such a person and the world will reward you. Particularly if you are a person that can lead with honesty, virtue and strength as your standards.

Who are you? Can you be proud of who you are, and are you the same person in public as you are when no one is watching? That is called integrity, and is one of the rarest traits in our society. One very useful thing to develop is a thirty word mission statement of who you are and where you are going. Keep a copy of it where you can see it often to remind yourself when you falter, especially where you can see it before you go to sleep at night and when you arise in the morning. Some people even recite it to themselves during the day to keep it at the top of their minds so that their subconscious mind can be working on it as well.

Where are you going? I've talked about goals as being dreams with deadlines in other columns. Are you doing something every day to take you closer to the goals you have set for yourself? Or are you coasting, hoping that it will happen on its own? An old law of physics says that an object in motion tends to remain in motion, while an object at rest tends to remain at rest.

Believe in your ability and take action to make things that are important to you real in your life. Earl Nightingale shared the strangest secret in the world - "you become what you think about". Fill your hearts and minds with uplifting and important things and make your dreams come true. ***

Photo of Karen Beth Pike courtesy of the author