From the Editors July 16, 2012 Issue

Gems on your crown

The Editors

A height. A race. An age. A level of education. A cultural background. A history. A bloodline. These are just a few of the measurements that the world would use to identify, define, and classify you. It’s easy to become conditioned into accepting these classifications as everything there is to a person.

This isn’t a modern issue, by any means. Even Jesus came up against it. Hearing people’s opinions about him, he once asked his disciples: “Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ” (Mark 8:27–29). Peter had a more spiritual view of Jesus rather than those other merely human opinions.

What if you asked your friends the same kind of question—“Whom do people say that I am?” The people who don’t know you too well might just describe you by physical attributes, by what you do with your time, or by where you live. People who are better acquainted with you might describe you by how you behave, what is truly important to you, what you have accomplished, or by the nature of your character.

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