WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Not what do people call you.
Not what do you do for a living.
Not what have you accumulated.
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Because knowing that may answer an even greater question:
WHAT ARE YOU HERE TO DO?
“Who do you think you are?”
I have heard that expression many times.
Usually it is thrown at somebody as a challenge.
An accusation.
Maybe even an insult.
But I think we have been asking it the wrong way.
The real question is:
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
And I am speaking directly to YOU.
There may be no greater peace or contentment available at any price than knowing:
Who you are.
Where you came from.
Where you are going.
And perhaps even more compelling…
WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING BETWEEN NOW AND THEN.
There is a word for that.
PURPOSE.
WHO ARE YOU?
This question ought to do something to you.
It may haunt you.
Disturb you.
Call to you.
Or perhaps it has been quietly beckoning for years.
Not loudly.
Not violently.
Just steadily.
WAKE UP.
LOOK CLOSER.
THERE IS MORE IN YOU.
Remember those old snow globes?
You pick one up.
Turn it upside down.
Shake it.
Suddenly the entire little world inside comes alive.
Everything that had settled begins moving.
That is what this question can do inside a person.
WHO AM I?
Shake it up.
Turn it over.
See what begins moving.
See what rises.
See what has been sleeping.
Sometimes a person needs a little disturbance before discovering what has been waiting inside.
GETTING BY THE BY
Existing is not enough for a human being.
Existing may keep the body moving.
But merely getting through another day…
Another week…
Another month…
Another year…
Can eventually begin to feel like drudgery.
Wake up.
Go through the motions.
Do what is required.
Come home.
Sleep.
Repeat.
Then mark another day off the calendar.
That is survival.
But survival cannot be the whole assignment.
We were made for more than merely enduring our own existence.
At some point, something inside begins pushing against the shell.
Much like a chick inside an egg.
PECK.
PECK.
PECK.
Why?
Because staying inside what once protected you will eventually keep you from living.
The shell served its purpose.
Now break through it.
NOTHING LESS THAN LIFE IS WAITING ON THE OTHER SIDE.
I KNOW BECAUSE I LIVE
To live is to experience.
To engage.
To see.
To hear.
To taste.
To touch.
To think.
To feel.
To discover.
And perhaps there are dimensions of life that go beyond even those familiar senses.
There are moments so large that words fail.
A sunrise from a mountain.
Holding a newborn child.
Standing before the ocean.
Falling in love.
Creating something that did not exist yesterday.
Helping someone when nobody else knew they needed help.
Discovering something about yourself you had never understood before.
How do you completely explain those things?
Sometimes you cannot.
Words become too small.
There are parts of life that must be EXPERIENCED.
And when you begin activating more of who you really are, you begin tasting something beyond mere physical existence.
An invisible but nourishing part of life.
Meaning.
Wonder.
Connection.
Purpose.
COLUMBUS, GALILEO, KEATS, DA VINCI… WERE SUMMONED TO COME FORWARD
History is filled with people who seemed compelled by something inside them.
Explorers.
Poets.
Scientists.
Artists.
Inventors.
Philosophers.
Think of Columbus pushing toward an uncertain horizon.
Galileo looking upward and challenging what people believed they already knew.
Keats reaching for language large enough to hold human emotion.
Leonardo da Vinci examining almost everything that crossed his path.
Painting.
Anatomy.
Engineering.
Flight.
Nature.
Mechanics.
What was happening inside these people?
Something called them forward.
CURIOSITY.
VISION.
QUESTIONS.
PURPOSE.
They responded.
And notice something important.
Explorers do not always know what they are going to find.
That is why they are explorers.
They move without having every answer first.
That takes faith.
Not blind faith.
ACTIVE FAITH.
The kind that says:
I DON’T KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THIS LEADS…
BUT I MUST FIND OUT.
There is reward even in the search.
Sometimes the discovery is the destination.
Sometimes the journey changes the traveler.
And sometimes the most important thing found…
IS YOURSELF.
MOTION MACHINES WITH INSTRUCTIONS
Human beings were built for motion.
GO.
But go where?
Seek.
Ask.
Knock.
Explore.
Adventure.
Journey.
Investigate.
Inquire.
Learn.
Try.
Build.
Teach.
Create.
Serve.
Those are movement words.
Life keeps calling us into motion.
And somewhere inside your own packaging came a measure of gifts.
Talents.
Abilities.
Interests.
Instincts.
Skills.
Curiosities.
Things you notice that other people overlook.
Things you can do that feel strangely natural.
Things that energize you instead of draining you.
Pay attention to those.
They may be clues.
You were not given gifts merely to admire them.
ACTIVATE THEM.
Develop them.
Use them.
Share them.
PURPOSE IS NOT ALWAYS A JOB TITLE
This is important.
People hear the word PURPOSE and immediately imagine some enormous assignment.
A world-changing career.
A ministry.
A company.
A book.
A movement.
Maybe.
But purpose does not always arrive with a microphone.
Sometimes purpose is quieter.
Raising a family well.
Teaching somebody.
Encouraging someone.
Building something useful.
Being trustworthy.
Solving problems.
Making people laugh.
Caring for someone who cannot care for themselves.
Leaving a place better than you found it.
Purpose can operate through your profession.
But your profession is not automatically your purpose.
A job tells people what you do.
Purpose begins telling YOU why you are doing it.
RELEASE WHAT CAME IN THE PACKAGE
You arrived here carrying something.
Everybody did.
Maybe several things.
The tragedy is not failing to become famous with them.
The tragedy is never opening the package.
Never discovering what was inside.
Never developing it.
Never using it.
Never giving it away.
The world does not need another imitation of somebody else.
It needs the portion that came through YOU.
Your experiences.
Your gifts.
Your perspective.
Your abilities.
Your particular way of seeing.
When those are activated and shared, people notice.
Sometimes the world even seems to take a deep breath.
Because something that was missing has finally shown up.
THE TRUE COIN
We spend much of life collecting.
Money.
Property.
Titles.
Accomplishments.
Recognition.
Possessions.
Nothing inherently wrong with those.
But there is another currency.
THE GIVING OF ONESELF.
What did you contribute?
What did you teach?
Who did you encourage?
What did you create?
What did you improve?
Who is stronger because you were here?
That is a different kind of wealth.
Because giving of yourself does not necessarily diminish you.
Often it reveals you.
The more faithfully you use what is inside, the clearer you begin seeing who you are.
Purpose is discovered partly by reflection.
But much of it is discovered…
IN MOTION.
FINAL THOUGHT
Maybe the question:
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
was never supposed to put you in your place.
Maybe it was supposed to help you FIND your place.
There is something within you that came here carrying instructions.
Seek them.
Activate them.
Use what you were given.
And somewhere between where you came from and wherever you are going…
COME FULLY ALIVE.
PEARLS INSIGHT
Personal purpose develops through self-awareness, curiosity, action and the deliberate use of one’s abilities. People often discover meaning not by waiting for a single dramatic revelation, but by identifying recurring interests, strengths, values and opportunities to contribute. Purpose becomes clearer when gifts are exercised rather than merely contemplated.
PEARLS FROM THE BOOKS
Throughout Pearls for the Soul, one idea appears again and again:
YOU WERE CREATED ON PURPOSE.
That suggests another possibility.
Perhaps you were also created…
FOR A PURPOSE.
The search is not selfish.
Finding your abilities allows you to give them.
And what is given becomes part of the contribution your life makes to everyone else’s journey.
PEARLS CONNECTION
This Pearl connects directly with:
WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
and
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR PERSONAL AWARENESS
Awareness helps identify what is inside.
Aptitude helps identify what you can naturally develop.
Purpose asks the larger question:
WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH IT?
The three belong together.
RICHIE SPEAKS
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
GOOD QUESTION.
Now don’t run away from it.
Shake the snow globe.
Wake things up.
Look inside the package.
Find the gifts.
Put legs on them.
GO.
Seek.
Ask.
Knock.
Explore.
And somewhere along the way…
DISCOVER THE HOW AND THE WHY OF IT.
You were not sent here merely to mark days off a calendar.
YOU WERE CREATED ON PURPOSE.
Now…
LIVE LIKE IT.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
pearlsforthesoul.com
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