“And now, with God’s help, I shall become myself.”  - Søren Kierkegaard

 

Let me begin by saying I am no Russell Crowe.  I’m pretty sure I’ve never thrown a telephone at anyone in a rage, or told a screen writer that I’m the best actor in the world, who can make even garbage sound good.  I know I’ve had days during which I’ve displayed both anger and arrogance, albeit without the benefit of world-wide media coverage.  He’s an actor from Australia.  I’m an attorney from near Atlanta.  There are many more differences than similarities.  We’re very different people.  But, I must admit, I wish I were more like some of the characters he has played in the movies: General Maximus Decimus Meridius from Gladiator, Captain Jack Aubrey from Master and Commander, or even Jim Braddock from Cinderella Man.  These are brave men – unafraid to stare down evil or danger.  But maybe these characters were so appealing because these men were just living the life they were supposed to live.  They were being all they were made to be.

 

As I neared my graduation from law school, I was given a Bible as a graduation present from a law school friend.  Inscribed on the front of the Bible were my initials and the familiar quote, “Above all else, to thine own self be true.”  You recognize this quote as coming from Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, where the character of Polonius prepares his son Laertes for travel abroad with a speech in which he directs the youth to commit a “few precepts to memory.” Among these percepts is this familiar admonition, “This above all: to thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/Thou cans’t not be false to any man.”  This is certainly wise advice to a young man about to go out into the world.

 

One of the soundest pieces of advice I ever received about the practice of law (or life, for that matter) was to learn my own style.  My old law partner, Mike Murphy – now a judge, once said to me, “Don’t try to be Dad or me.  Be yourself.”  Be the best you that only you can be.  Joyce Meyer once said, “God will help us become who He has called us to be, but He will never help us become someone else.”  Perhaps that is the source of much of the frustration men experience in their lives.  We are striving to be someone else in our own power (without God’s help). 

 

When I think of a guy being comfortable in his own skin, I can’t help but think of John the Baptist.  He was quite a character…unique, to say the least.  He preached, not in the synagogue but, in the wilderness of Judea.  He didn’t wear an ornate, flowing robe, but rather camel hair clothing, with a leather belt around his waist.  Even his diet was different – locusts and wild honey.  In my mind’s eyes I see David Crowder, without his glasses.  But what did Jesus have to say about His unusual kinsman?  After commenting on the location of his ministry, his courage, his appearance, and his vocation as a prophet, He said, “’Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not been one greater than John the Baptist…’”(Matthew 11:11).  What made John so great?  I firmly believe it was because he knew who he was…and who he was not.

 

 “Now this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed, and did not deny but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’  And they asked him, ‘What then, are you Elijah?’  He said, ‘I am not.’  Are you the Prophet?’ And he answered, No’” (John 1:19-21).  I think a big part of knowing who we are is first knowing who we are not.  It is crucial that we recognize we are not God.   This may come as a shock to some of you, but you are not omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent.  John knew his limitations.  He said, “’I am not the Christ.’”  We are not the Christ (the anointed One), although as Christians, we are anointed to be the unique, one and only we were born to be.  Be yourself – not someone else.  You’ll never really be very good at being someone else anyway.

 

Two quotes to end today’s thoughts from a couple of guys with imaginations big enough to be themselves.  Walt Disney said, “The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.”  And from that sage philosopher Dr. Seuss, “Today you are you, that is truer than true.  There is no one else alive who is youer than you.”

 

To be continued in: Who Are You? (Part III) “Become Who You Were Born to Be.”