Who do YOU say I am?

Our day begins with the loud beep of the alarm clock. The drip drop of the coffee maker in the kitchen is more soothing a sound to our still sleepy souls, but the serenity it tries to provide doesn't last very long. All too soon we are shuffling out the door and out unto the small roads and grand highways. Encased in our vehicular cocoons we contend with the overwhelming noise of our big-small world as we go to and fro, from dawn to dusk.

Beep Beep Beep
Honk Honk Honk
Ring Ring Ring

The day is filled with inescapable noise. You turn on the radio and find pundits spewing poison in their constant tempest rages and rants; they seek not to soothe but to rile. You turn to music but the lyrics are senseless, soulless, generic garbles glorifying lust, drugs, and violence. You seek out conversation that extends beyond the weather page, but it isn't easy to make deep connection in a constant moving current.

Life is complicated. There is so much to find on this amazing moving marble that is our home. We can find beauty, we can find friendship, we can find love - but finding implies a certain level of searching. Searching can be tough. It is great to find but it is hard to seek. The seeker seeks because he is not whole. Emptiness causes a deep ache that is agonizing. To lack something essential inside is to suffer and suffering...well...sucks.

Sometimes I think we say we found something just so we can avoid the suffering that is seeking. Giving up on truly finding for ourselves what fills the emptiness, we listen to the noises around us. A legion of voices say they have found contentment "Here! Wait! NO its over there!" Contentment becomes a moving target that never stills because we don't really know what we want or really need. Often we settle for unbelievablly less than we deserve or want.

Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say I am?" The noise about Jesus and around Jesus was loud and everyone had a different answer to the question, but the only thing that mattered to him was what each individual said he was and that reality hasn't changed. He still wants to know what each of us thinks of him. It's not going to matter what anybody else said; he wants to know what you say. So get quite and get real because it's what YOU say that matters. He isn't going to ask what everyone else said; he is going to look into your eyes and into your heart and ask, "Who do YOU say I am?" Will there be silence then?