Who are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever been asked that question?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems a very simple little question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are, in fact, you all day long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three words that can send the wisest of us spiraling into a mess of introspection never coming out on the other side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you asked me that question when I was 18 years old, I may have cursed you out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What the f*** you mean, who am I? Who the f*** are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I would have responded that way not because I was upset at the person asking but because I was upset at myself because I wouldn\u2019t have had an adequate answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had no idea who I was or what I was doing. At that time, I was merely the collection of insincere reproductions of influences who were just as clueless about who they were. Playing a role, horribly acting out a screenplay written for someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mad. Lost. Seeking. Of course, these don\u2019t fully encompass the who of a person;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only the what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you asked me that question when I was 30 years old, I would have pontificated an impressive response that would have satisfied the question. Eloquence is the mask I wore then. Convincing the world I had it figured out and I that I existed on a plane above the normal. I wanted to impress upon people that I was great but I needed the validity that they believed the impression to fill my insecurities of not being adequate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the light I could appear flawless, but when the night came the cracks in my foundation would cause me to stumble and spiral. I always needed noise to drown out the sound of insufficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are not who you say you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I declared vociferously who I was so that you would remember me how I wanted you to remember me so that you wouldn\u2019t know the truth;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I thought that made me a failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought that made me unworthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought that didn\u2019t make me enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you ask me that question now, I laugh because I understand \u2018who\u2019 is static.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Who\u2019 \u2026is definitive and concrete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Who\u2019 \u2026is past, present and future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Who\u2019 \u2026is limiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I could tell you that I am a Master Chief in the Navy but in two years I may no longer be in the Navy so that can\u2019t be the thing that defines me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I could tell you that I am a father and a husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in 2003, I was a husband and if I was the same husband from 2003, in 2020, I wouldn\u2019t be a husband for long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s levels to this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2000, I was a father\u2026.on paper. I initially cowered from weight of creation. With creation comes responsibility and the father I am now, celebrates that responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A father in both instances but not even close in similarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Same word; different depths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Be careful how you answer that question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may answer it in a way that limits your potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may answer it in a way that diminishes your purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may answer it in a way that limits your legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How will you answer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I answer in a way that allows my failures and success to co-exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a way that allows my intentions and my actions to one day catch up to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a way that removes the period and adds a comma\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am becoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus\u201d Phil 3:14<\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Who are you? Have you ever been asked that question? It seems a very simple little question. You are, in fact, you all day long. Who [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theunsungleader.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theunsungleader.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theunsungleader.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theunsungleader.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theunsungleader.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theunsungleader.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"https:\/\/theunsungleader.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theunsungleader.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theunsungleader.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theunsungleader.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theunsungleader.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}