day 299: Who I Am

I was on a Southwest Airline flight the other day and because I had to power down my Kindle e-book during takeoff and landing I picked up the Southwest Airline magazine and browsed through the articles and advertisements. In the back of the magazine was an ad for the airline itself and all it was were pictures of employees and their employee identification badges that said, "What I do" and "Who I am". The "What I do" statement were what you would expect, First Officer, Accounts Payable Manager, Aircraft Mechanic, etc. It was the "Who I am" blurbs that stood out; "Speaker for Recycling, Volunteer at a Children's Hospital, Mentor, Box packer at a food bank, Walker for shelter animals, Support for military families, and on and on. With each one I read, I was touched and when I would go back and look at their pictures and then their job titles, their jobs took on so much more importance to me. They came alive. It made me think about how it easy for us at work to just worry about "what I do" and to pay little attention to "Who I am" and to many times just hide that "Who I am" under the proverbial bushel. As believers who work to bring our purpose to life, on our jobs and in our workplace, we should spend more time thinking, deciding and talking about, "Who I am". That is the part of us that makes us alive and human to others. It is the "Who I am" that is the real, unselfish, giving, caring and loving person. Jesus tells us in Luke 9:23; "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me". He is saying to us that we have to subordinate the "What I do", to the "Who I am". Can we think about this today and be sure that we have a good strong definition of "Who I am" that aligns squarely with who God wants us to be?

Reference: Luke 9:23 (New Living Testament)