A question of identity

Bettie Gray

Who am I ? is a cry that rises from the depths of a person's need for self-knowledge and purpose. Chasing dreams or tracing ancestry may not be at all helpful in answering that question. But there is guidance—in the Gospels.

Did anyone ever have a surer sense of purpose and identity than Jesus? His words show that he considered God to be his Father. And although he spent a great deal of time traveling on foot from village to village with his disciples, healing sickness wherever he went, he also, the Gospels say, spent time alone with God in prayer—sometimes on "a mountain."

What were these mountain prayers? We know a little about Jesus' prayers. The Lord's Prayer that he taught his disciples. His prayer in Gethsemane, "Father ... not my will, but thine, be done." His prayer on the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." In all of these, he addressed God as Father.

We can only speculate about Jesus' private prayers. But surely they must have included moments of profound communion with God, moments that gave him spiritual renewal and rest. Certainly we can infer that they must have reflected his absolute conviction that God was his Father.

Teacher, healer, and Master, Jesus has also been called the Way-shower. His example of private prayer shows all of us a way to leave the dust of our daily grind and go up to the mountain—the height of fervent prayer where we can find that God is our Father, too.

This week's contributors have been to the mountain. Read what they've learned about their spiritual identity—how they've shaken off some of that dust that dims a clear response to the question, Who am I?

Bettie Gray
Staff Editor

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