9/1/2020 0 Comments September 01st, 2020We arrive in this world without an identity. From day one, we have no idea who we are or what we are doing here. Most of us start - if we're lucky - surrounded by loved ones claiming we're the cutest little baby they've ever seen.
Cutest little baby ever - that becomes our first costume. As we grow, and our brain starts to develop the capacity to look around and begin figuring out who we are, we put on more costumes that help us build an identity that makes us unique and different from the rest of the world. I am funny. I am white. I am Catholic. I am an athlete. I am a mom. I am a teacher. I am middle class. I am Republican. I graduated from U of VA. I am pro-life. I am from New York. You get the picture. As we grow out of that identity of being simply a cute little baby, largely influenced by the family and people groups around us, we start to collect the "I am's" in our lives. Richard Rohr says this about that process: "It (our costumes) is probably necessary to get started, but it becomes problematic when we stop there and spend the rest of our lives promoting and protecting it." The truth is, when I start to see myself as any of those I am's - and, I come to believe that is truly what makes me who I am- that without being any of those things I somehow become less able to be the true me - the ego in me will have me fight at all costs to keep hold of those identities. The other side of that coin is, I think, the more I identify who I am by my individual costumes, the easier it is to identify others by those same costumes. And, if they aren't wearing the same costume I am, it makes it easier to think less of that person. I think as we go through life, we tend to collect more costumes and not get rid of them. I personally believe the path that we were all created to follow was one of coming to know our true meaning - the getting rid of costumes and coming to know who we truly are - is found in walking step for step with the God who made us. I think God loves that we are all different. I think he loves that we all have various costumes that we wear. He loves our differences. But I like to picture God walking in the center of a long line of us all marching confidently and humbly together through life, holding hands, all wearing our vastly different costumes. I picture God arching his neck to look down the long line of us to his right, and then to his left. And then God pauses and smiles and says, perfect, they all look like Jesus. I imagine that is the way God wants us to see each other as well.
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Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
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