Who Are You Anyway?

This was the testimony of John when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Temple assistants from Jerusalem to ask John whether he claimed to be the Messiah. He flatly denied it. "I am not the Messiah," he said. "Well then, who are you?" they asked. "Are you Elijah?" "No," he replied. "Are you the Prophet?" "No.""Then who are you? Tell us, so we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?" (John 1: 19-22, NLT)

An individual, who I did not recognize, stared at me during a meeting. She did not use the glance method but the full on stare approach. All I could do was smile and nod. As soon as we had a break she shouted out . . . "Who Are You Anyway?" Wow! Nothing like putting it out there!

John writes about another John, who was confronted with the need to explain his identity. He had chosen a vocation that caused the religious people to question his validity: preparing people to be introduced to the promised messiah. Put yourself in their place, the only thing that seemed out of the ordinary was a man in the desert trying to convince people to get ready for a messiah. They had a valid question: "Who are you?"

Eventually, history would identify him as John the Baptist because he baptized people to symbolize their readiness for the Messiah. People often recognize us by what we do. A healthy individual learns to separate their identity from their tasks in life; however, our identity determines how we speak and act.

So, who are you?
How do people identify you?
How will people remember you?
Meditate: "But by God's grace I am what I am . . ." (I Corinthians15:10a)

Learning with you to identify myself,
Shalom,
Kerrie
(All devotions written by Kerrie Palmer ©2008 All Rights Reserved)