The best answer we find is usually very superficial and doesn't really tell us anything. Eg, if we asked someone lease 'Who Am I?' they would likely answer by telling us our name. 'you're Julian of course'.
So that is what we learn to accept about ourselves. We're a name! But then if we're honest, that 'name' may as well be a number. We instinctively know that we are more than a name. So we say other things like, "My name is Julian, I am married with four daughters, I live in Moulsecoomb and I am a Pastor".
That is the kind of way most of us answer the question "Who Am I?"
But think about it, we know that 'who' we are is not the job we do or our marital status' etc. Those things tell us nothing about who we really are. It is clearly a phalicy to think any one of those things can tell us who we are. And it is also a phalicy to think that adding lots of phallacies together somehow has legitimacy. 1 Phalacy + 1 Phalacy = 2 Phallacies. The more phallacies you put together, the more phallacies you get!
For example consider the following ...
If 'who Julian is' is a married Pastor, with four daughters, living in Moulsecoomb', if that is 'who' I am then what If I changed my name. Ok, I wouldn't be called Julian anymore, but would I be different. No! I'd just be called something different. And If I changed job I would still be who I am, but just doing something different. And if I moved to another area, I would still be who I am, just living somewhere different - and on it goes. None of those things tell me a hoot about who I am.
If the only way you can answer the question "Who Am I?" is with the kind of answers above, then you still don't have an answer at all. You are more than a name, address and occupation.
Sometimes people talk about 'finding themselves' which also suggests they are lost. If you don't know who you are, then you are lost. The problem with being lost is we don't know 'how' lost we are.
In my next blog I will help answer this most important question. Stay tuned!
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