Who Am I?

A lot of changes take place in the course of our life.  Some are subtle and we hardly are aware that one moment is different from the one before it.  Others come to us like earthquakes shaking us and throwing us on the ground in some new form.  Retirement has proven to be a little bit of both.  There are moments when suddenly there is an awareness of gentle wind, but there is no awareness of how long it has been blowing.  On other days it seems like a different person is walking in shoes that no longer fit.     

All along the way we are told change is certain, but most of us hang onto the idea that life will always be the same,  that nothing will change what we believe deeply about our faith, and that we will be who we have always been.  Sometimes I find myself wondering who I am.  In days past the question was easily defined as I was constantly being called "preacher," or "Rev Bill," or something of that nature.  Nowadays it no longer fits.  I define myself as farmer since some of that is done around here, but when I see a neighbor pull up in the field next door to combine a hundred acres of cotton, the name simply does not wear very well.     

Who am I?  It is the question of our beginning.  Maybe it also the question of our ending.  Maybe the answer is not found in what we do, but who we are, not what titles we wear, but who we become.  Becoming is not an easy thing as it is something which stretches always out there ahead of us.  It may even be true that in the end we finally become the one we were created to be which is one content to be in the hands of the One who first pushed us forward and toward our Home.