Who Am I? A Paradox of Truth

My life is a paradox.

I'm simple, yet one who is constantly searching for a deeper meaning to things, and constantly asking deeper questions.

I'm a loner and yet a people person. I am a rambling man, yet one who stays at home.

I'm do not get wrapped up in emotionalism, but I live the fullness of emotion. I'm not an intellectual, yet I strive to learn more everday.

I'm spiritual yet physical. I'm utopian yet realistic. I'm romantic, yet idealistic. I have a vision, but as much so I have a Heritage.

I am loud, yet quiet and soft-spoken. I'll be random, wild, and racaus one day, while the next day be very standard, polite, and presentable. I'll be a Southern Rock junkie one day and listen to Bach or Bethoven the next.

I am myself, yet I recognize that I do not belong only to myself. I am one person, yet all things to all people.

And I am not being contradicting in this, nor am I being a double-minded man. Nor am I failing to be true to who I am. In fact, this paradoxical thrift I see in my life is, though confusing at times, a reassurance that I am called to God's plan. Who is Jesus? He is the ultimate paradox of all, yet perfect, holy, and all righteous.

Jesus was both (and is both) God and man. Even His mother Mary was both mother and virgin. Jesus was natural and ideal; spiritual and physical; perfect and yet suffered from the imperfections of mankind. Jesus is everlasting, yet had a birth and a death. See the pattern? Jesus, even more so than Paul, was all things to all people, yet He did not stray from who He was.

Now there are some distinctives to people, even those called to follow Christ. Not all Christians think or act the same, and not all have the same personality, nor are they called to have the same personality. Some are more loners and some are more people oriented. Some are more classical and some more modern. Some more loud and some more quiet. But even this is paradoxical. We should all strive to bring these things out of antithesis to a common synthesis, while yet doing so in very different ways.

I encourage all of you and myself to not stop or start at being just yourself. In fact, don't make that your goal. You are not just your own, but you are God's. The world has perverted the Christian idea of tolerance and diversity into something that radically defends sin. Rather, begin by realizing that you are God's, not your own. The only way to find your life is to lose it, again a paradox we see in Scripture. This falls into the same line as the humble being exalted and the exalted being humbled. When you first focus on who you are in your core identity with God and others, that you have a common calling with God's People to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, you will begin to see your own God-given personality come up. However we must realize that we should aim at bringing things out of antithesis. Become old in mind yet young in heart. Become natural yet ideal. Become one yet many. Become one in full, yet only a part of the whole.

From this, we can see that you are one of God's personally, yet altogether we are one of God's corporately. We become full. Through this we have a destiny, yet only through our heritage. We are exalted only through our humility. We are all things, yet really and truly just ourselves.

Just some thoughts.

What do you think?

God bless you

God bless America

Pray for our Troops

May 8, 2008

Ryan Hampton