Identity

These days I was talking to someone who made the following comment: “My friend called me to complain about something I did that made him uncomfortable, he called me in a very upset attitude. I understood and I was going to apologize for what I did, but I was upset by his tone and attitude and I did not ask for his forgiveness and I hung up the call”.

It is then that I reflect on the following: Are we who we are because we have an identity that defines our character and conduct? Or are we what we are according to the circumstances or how people treat us? I remembered a post that I had read some time ago that said: “according to how you treat me, I treat you.” It seems to me that it goes along the same line of thought, which does not allow me to maintain a firmness in my identity, because I will be continually being directed by the atmosphere in which I find myself but I do not have a defined character that helps me maintain the control of said atmosphere or situation.

There is a writing of a man who observed a scorpion drowning and to help it took it with his hand to get it out of the water and the scorpion hit him, the man dropped it, but when he saw that it sank again in the water, he returned it take to get it out and the scorpion bit it again. This happened on a third occasion, and a man who was observing the scene asked him: friend, you are stubborn. Are you not understanding that if you take that animal again, it will bite you again? The man replied: “The nature of the scorpion is to sting, and that will not change mine, which is to help.” So, taking a leaf, he pulled the animal out of the water and saved it.

You don’t scream because someone provokes you, you don’t hit because someone attacked you. You scream and hit because that is your nature, that is what you carry within you. But we go around blaming others for how we behave, because we lack the maturity to recognize that we are responsible for how we are and behave. We are victims of situations and we are not capable of seeing ourselves differently, because we are used to being that way and we justify it.

If you don’t confront yourself with your responsibility, you will never change. The world is full of people who live justifying their wrong way of living, because it is easier to place the responsibility on others or on circumstances. What group are you from? Can you stop looking outward today and start looking inward? Could you start to see yourself as an agent of change who brings a contribution to the world no matter how small it may seem?

The world needs people of firmness, people with identity, and people with determination for change. Of the rest, we are already full. Start today to take responsibility for your actions and determine to take action for what you need to change inside.

There are things that in order to do them, you need the intervention of the Holy Spirit. So, don’t try to do it yourself. Deliver everything in his hands today and he will give you the strength and the tools to transform your life. Let the grace of God take over and cover your life today.