Becoming Virtuous

Identity. Who am I? Does anyone else catch themselves asking this question on a regular basis?

Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes I wonder how much of what I do, and who I perceive myself to be, is me trying to appease the people around me? Or how much of what I do is learned behavior, instead of what I would naturally do? It can be an interesting philosophical exercise.

And yet, while it’s important to determine which of my actions stem simply from people pleasing, it hit me this morning that there are more important questions I should be focusing on.

First, Whose am I? Am I a child of God, and do I have evidence to believe so because I see His work in my life? And second, who is He calling and reworking me to be?

Don’t get me wrong, I think personality tests can be helpful in understanding myself and others, and I can geek out over them with the best of them (just ask me about cognitive functions or strengths finders sometime ). But I realized, that at least for myself, focusing only on my Myers Briggs acronym (or other test results) is focusing too much on who I am right now. It honestly is also just focusing too much on *me* period.

So what? Will I give up personality tests? Probably not soon. But I do want to be asking myself some different questions more regularly. Like, who does God want me to be? Am I walking in pride or humility? Am I intentionally loving others, and seeking to do so in the way(s) that nourish their souls? Am I dying to self? And, since people become like who they spend the most time with, am I seeking to gaze more at Christ? Am I seeking to know and love Him more? Because ultimately, that is Who I want to become like more and more.

P.S. I know that, in the end, it is God who changes my sinful responses to godly ones. But I know that I’m not called to be passive in this work. So, in faith, instead of focusing on who I am now, I want to focus on who God is creating me to be.