How are you?

Since being back, one of the hardest things to get used to is the way people interact with each other in western culture. With so much technology, gadgets, social media and the like, you don't get to see real people anymore.  


Today was one of those days. I woke up with a cold and just didn't feel like facing the world. While some people I've gotten closer to through life's trials and triumphs, some I have helplessly seen draw away. One of the things that really gets to me is when I ask: How are you?


For example:


How are you?
I'm going to the supermarket.


How are you?
It's been getting really cold lately.


How are you?
My apartment smells really bad.


You get the idea. I'm by no means pointing fingers or judging. Well, I am judging. But not discriminating. I am also guilty of it. Guilty of replying instead with what I've been doing when people ask how I am doing. We have lost our identity. We do not know who we are and how we are doing. And we're too afraid to admit it. So we cover it up. 


On my knees this afternoon, angry, hurt and frustrated at myself and people, I found confessing to God:


Father, I am lost. I do not know You and when I do not know You, I do not know me. Because life becomes about trying to become something to someone so that I can feel some sort of affiliation and bearing to something bigger than myself. And in my life that something becomes people I admire and like, covering up insecurities with clothes, showing people how popular and trendy I am with social media, living through other people's lives through T.V... We take on a persona hoping people will see that and like it. And they might. But then people change! Life changes! And then what? Who am I? How am I? 


Lord, You be my identity! You are not a moving target. You are absolute. Father God, be my absolute. My absolute love. My absolute joy. My absolute peace. My unchanging identity in a world that is so shifting and careless. 

How are you?

Blessed because of God's unchanging affection for me. But life is not easy. There are ups and downs. Honestly, the downs can get way down. I do not deny that. I haven't got it all together. Not as smart, pretty and rich as I would like to be. But hey, life is rich because of Him. The world out there is big and the needs are great and I'm excited to be a tiny part of what God is doing.