That Is Me

It was not a pleasant day. I was overwhelmed by loneliness, fatigue, hormones, severe disjointedness in some business affairs, and frustration with the on-going chaos in my immediate surroundings accompanied by a complete lack of progress with the building project. I was on the edge or right smack in the middle of tears the whole day. Not good.

Eventually I just knuckled down to work and got over some of it, but it was that sort of "getting over it" that meant that as soon as the distraction of busy-ness disappeared, the feelings would resurface. It wasn’t until a little later, as I watched a short video, that my mind changed.

In the video, the speaker brought up the incident in which Jesus read from the book of Isaiah, in the temple, and then said that this scripture was being fulfilled before their eyes. He went on to say that in each of our lives, there are times when a particular thing in scripture is fulfilled in us. We find ourselves in the pages of the Bible. Essentially, he was saying that, one day, we open the book and read a passage, our eyes pop open, and we say, "THAT IS ME!"

This reminded me of a time when I had said that. Early last year, when most of the above items were true and even more so (except the part about the building project, which hadn’t begun yet) and I was angry and even bitter about the total lack of male assistance in my life, the Lord had taken me to Proverbs 31. First I read the part about the servant girls, but then I read the whole chapter, my eyes widened, and I said, "That is me!"

You may think that’s a bit arrogant, to look at the passage describing that most admirable of women and identify with it, but that’s not the case at all. (Remember, I was overwhelmed by my life, and playing around with tears all day today.) What I saw was a woman who had her fingers in a lot of pies, never apologized for it, and managed her affairs with dignity. I saw a woman whose husband wasn’t jealous of her success: he was proud of it. I saw a woman who knew her place, and who filled every inch of her place. A wealthy businesswoman who gave generously to the poor, a woman who learned and who taught, and a woman who wasn’t afraid of digging in and getting the job done herself, but who also obviously knew how to delegate a great many tasks and who appreciated those who assisted her.

I’d forgotten that was me, to tell you the truth. I forgot who I am. I turned the volume of my circumstances higher than the revelation God had given me about myself. It’s a dangerous thing, to be acting on the revelation of who I am, while forgetting who I am.

Before you do, you’ve gotta know who you are.

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