I have beem amused, over the past couple of weeks, by an advertising campaign ran by a well known mobile phone company. Billboards have been popping up everywhere, emblazoned with the phrase: ‘I am who I am because of everyone’. On their website you can read more about this (http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk/home.php).
This amused me for a number of reasons; firstly, I have to admit, because if you now type the words ‘I am’ into a search engine, on some great quest for spiritual enlightenment, you will first find the option to upgrade your mobile, rather than encounter the God revealed to the Israelites. That strikes me as quite funny.
The whole campaign got me thinking though, I think because of the utter truth in it and the utter falsity.
It is true that our experiences mould us and shape the life we lead. The website above features Rose Tremain, the winner of the 2008 Orange Broadband prize for fiction, and a list of the people and experiences that make her who she is today. I scribbled together one of my own:
- I am who I am because my Dad took me trainspotting.
- I am who I am because my Mum taught me to read.
- I am who I am because: ‘Having asked God for forgiveness, I will be his loving and obedient child, because Jesus is my Saviour from sin, I will trust Him to keep me good, and will try to help others to follow Him. I promise to pray, to read my Bible, and by His help, to lead a life that is clean in thought and word and deed.’
- I am who I am because of Mrs Mason’s card, asking for a signed copy of my first book.
- I am who I am because of a church holiday camp.
- I am who I am because we wanted to know if prayer worked.
- I am who I am because of an Oxford summer school, with lectures on archaeology and anthropology
- I am who I am because of Eden Oldham.
- I am who I am because of the youth rally in 2004.
- I am who I am because of Katie and Christine.
- I am who I am because I leapt into the ravine.
The statement is false though, in as much as I know, with increasing certainty, that it is not our experiences that make us who we are. It is not our relationships that are the fundamental driving force for our existence. When it comes to the bottom line, I am who I am because of I AM, the real expression of those words. And I am because He dreamed me up, he breathed life into me, He drew a blueprint for my life that was good, was about hope and joy and adventure. I am because of Him, and in Him.
I think it’s a really good thing to be able to recognise the events, both the positive ones and the less-positive ones, that have been key in shaping the paths our lives have taken. I’m also convinced that none of these events, whatever their nature and consequence, have the power to define us.
I am determined to glean all the good I can out of every experience life throws at me, but ultimately my hope comes from the fact that who I am is deeper and is untouchable, indelible by any human experience. I’m thanking God for that truth today.
That advert made me have quite similar thoughts myself! Thanks for sharing.