Remember Who We Are

We have forgotten who we are. That is the real problem. There are many symptoms and many an argument on ways to mend them, but no one is talking about the real problem.

I recently have been working through a course on being spiritually centered and enjoying the day by James Cox (I highly recommend it). One of the key concepts is recognizing where our worth comes from. Too many of us (and I certainly have been guilty of this) base our worth on our performance. Our worth should be based not on what we do but who we are.

At our most basic inner core we are children of a loving God. If we truly recognized that about ourselves it would fill us with both humility and a sense of our true worth. Humility and self worth go together. It is a recognition that we all come from God and have great worth in His sight. None of us are elevated above another we are all His and deserve to know it and act accordingly. Pride on the other hand is the search for superiority. If there is superior that means there is inferior. Those who seek for superiority will always struggle with doubt and will struggle to prove that they are superior rather than its opposite.Those who struggle with their self-esteem are struggling with pride.

If we focused on our true identity and humility our performance would be an expression of our gratitude to Our Creator rather than a source for esteem. We would also see others as they really are and treat each other as we ought. Of course none of us would be perfect at it, life is about growth which means we learn from our mistakes. But, to have the knowledge of who we truly are as the base of our operations would make a tremendous difference.

As I was pondering what I was learning about my own individual worth my thoughts turned to the nation and how this same principle applies. At the founding of this nation there was a recognition of Divine Providence, that we are endowed by Our Creator with rights. There was a recognition that we are His, and have great worth in His sight. American Exceptionalism has been turned into a prideful statement about how amazing we are compared to everyone else. The reality is we are only exceptional because of Him. God is the one who is amazing, and as we humbly rely on Him and love and serve Him and each other He will continue to bless and strengthen us in our trials. The more we turn from Him the less exceptional we are. We are neither inferior or superior as individuals or as a nation, rather we are nearer or farther away from Our Creator.

There is in our society now a worship of the carnal, the body. We define and judge people not by the content of their character but rather their skin color, what they eat and drink and what they do for sex. It is degrading and symptomatic of the problem of not remembering who we really are.

The gods are political correctness as defined by some group of people whose desire is driven by greed for money and/or power. Those who stand and speak of traditional values are excoriated as not with the times and phobic. The reality is their, the Progressives, ideas are old, and the results are well documented. If we continue on this path this society/nation will one day end where it always has and always does, destruction and tyranny. We cease to be an exception when we follow the same path as everyone else who have turned to themselves and their supposed superiority rather than to God.

I recently heard that they are now trying to take the word Easter out of schools too, just as they are trying to do with Christmas. I immediately started wishing random people a Happy Easter. How is it that we have gotten to this place? Religion is treated as some sort of hateful thing that we must hide. When the First Amendment is discussed people focus on free speech. But freedom of religion is the first freedom discussed in the First Amendment. The founders made it so, knowing that a knowledge of who we are and where we came from was necessary for the maintenance of freedom. It is so much under attack and it is no wonder. If those who focus on their own superiority want to have power over whom they consider inferior than they must make us focus only on the temporal, they must take us from Our Creator and from our true selves.

There is much darkness in this world. But, I take comfort in knowing that the light always prevails. Wherever light is it rules over the darkness. We just need to shine it brighter. This is not an easy task but it is the most basic thing that we can focus on right now. Individually we must seek Our Creator and then as families, then as communities and on up from there.

This is a blessed country, but we must remember where those blessing have come from. We must remember who we are.