I am borrowing a phrase from Fr. Mark Pierce, whom I heard preach yesterday. He said his mother would say to him whenever he would go out on the town as a teenager, “Don’t forget who you are now!”
He apparently never did.
What a great admonition for Lent, as Fr. Mark reminded us. Don’t forget who we are! The ashes are placed on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday with the words, “Remember man, that you are dust…..” Remember who you are!
If only we kept in mind who we are, we would be so much more at peace.
Who am I? The age-old question returns each year during this holy and happy (yes, happy) season of Lent. To whom do we turn to answer that question? If it is to be answered well, we need to turn, to do an about-face and be converted to God who is well-prepared to love us into the answer.
Who we are is how God sees us. Not our neighbors, not society, not the government, not anyone else. God’s perception of us is who we are. God constantly beholds us, sustains us, sees us, and calls us by name.
We are children of God, adopted sons and daughters of the Father.
Let no one deceive us with anything different.
Our world would have us think we are what we have, what we produce. Our value in the world’s eye lays in our material wealth, our physical health and beauty, our power and influence over others, and our positions of privilege. It is from this we need to “turn around”, turn to God, and be converted.
If we take God out of the equation, we end up identifying with sin.
Let us not forget who we are now in the sight of God. What we shall later be we cannot begin to imagine for we shall be like him who has loved us into life.
