Who am I?

I have a question on my mind right now that I don't know how to answer.

Who am I?

I guess the first thing I can do is eliminate who I'm not.

I'm not my job. Men tend to believe they are what they do and alot of times our self-worth is tied up in being in a profession that the world views as sucessful. Ergo why its the first question after What's your name when two people meet at a party. But if I don't do anything or decided to do something different does that mean I cease to exist or become someone else? Of course not.

I'm not my body. If I were my body, flesh and blood then how could I speak to someone over the phone or be present in a video conference or an IM. If I were my body then people wouldn't say "He's gone" when I die and they put my body in the ground. And so my body is a vehicle for me but its not me.

I'm not my words or my creations. These are expressions of who I am. They are like the fruit of a tree and they say alot about who I am but they aren't me.

I'm not even my thoughts because disease or genetics or chemicals can affect my thoughts. Rene Descartes said I think therefore I am and that's logical to serve up as a proof of existence but I don't think it necessarily follows that I am what I think. It may be true that what we think repeatedly we do and in the words of Aristotle, what we repeatedly do we become. But that still doesn't answer the question of who I am.

I'm not my name. If I were then if you and I have the same name are we the same person? If someone changes my name do I become a different person? I believe God changes names so that people think differently about themselves or receive a picture of how He sees them. Jacob means "Supplanter" and God changed his name to Israel which means "Wrestles with God".

I'm not my children but a small part of me lives on in them. In their memories and in their genetic code. My physical body lives on in their DNA but not alot of people know that what I did in life lives on in their messenger RNA. Good or bad some of that code is rewritten and passed along.

I don't expect to answer this question fully in this life but I find it helpful to focus on the light of scripture and God's Spirit to learn about myself and not the things written above. If I had to answer the question today this might be the best answer...

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. - Romans 8:16-17