Who Am I? - Pt 1

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10 ESV).

I had some time on my hands while Mary was away on her excursion to the Mediterranean last week. I decided to get an old movie out and watch it. I chose “I Robot.” It is a fun action movie. I found myself being very thankful for being a human being. While we may not be able to process calculations as quickly, nor have the strength of a robot, we have the astonishing capacity to see and hear and feel, and then to think about all this amazing reality, and then to form judgments about it all and know right and wrong and good and bad and beautiful and ugly, and then to feel profound emotions of love and hate and joy and discouragement and wonder and hope and gratitude, and then to reason and plan our lives in ways that accomplish things. It was one of those rare moments, like a brief brush with eternity. To be alive as a human being with indescribable mysteries at every turn, and to have in front of us an eternal destiny of spectacular glory or inexpressible horror is a weight that can either press you down with fear and trembling or bear you up with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Whether it does the one or the other depends in large measure on whether you know the answer to the big basic human questions or not: Who are you? That simple question is one that we should not take for granted. It is not a privilege given to any animal. Not one of them has ever lost one night's sleep pondering those questions. Only humans ask these questions. Only humans kill themselves and kill others when they don't get true and satisfying answers to these questions. Not often do we find such resoundingly clear answers to questions such as this in such a small space as we do in our reading today. In fact, we get the answers to three of these very basic, essential questions: Who am I? How did I get this identity? Why am I here? As we continue our look at the Apostle Peter’s first letter, we’ll spend some time examining those answers in depth. Today I would encourage you to take a deep breath and go back to the beginning as it were, to go down to the basic foundational questions of life, and listen to the Word of God. Read our passage again. It should cause you to wonder and stand in awe of what he has done for and in us. It certainly does for me.