who you are and what you do.

A friend and I recently had a conversation how now a days when people are being introduced they're accustomed to asking the following 2 questions: what do you do or where do you work?

We both started talking about how those questions make us cringe at the sound of them being asked because our jobs or the things that we 'do' are not who we ARE. There is such a difference in what you DO vs.who you ARE. Now I understand their are those who do have jobs in which they love or their job requires them to utilize a skill in which the person uses to describe them selves or things they love...but the job its self isn't who you are.

I mentioned to her how I remember the day I met someone a while back (who now is a friend/pastor) he had asked me: "so tell me about your self, who ARE YOU?" VS. what do you do? It really stuck a cord with me because I struggled trying to answer it and if I remember correctly my answer involved something with how I grew up and more than likely a lot of awkward pauses as I tried to dial into my lists of 'interests, favorites'.

Now quite a bit of time has passed and a lot of life has happened and I am slowly discovering who I AM. Some might say from the outsiders looking in your 23 years old isn't it taking you a while? But I am sure that the things I've discovered, things that have been healed and the things I've dreamt are things that have been the result of ALL the life that has happened up until this point and they're the things that have MADE me DIG for when the question is asked: WHO ARE YOU?

Soo the next time you meet someone instead of asking what they do or where they work ....ask WHO ARE YOU? the response will probably be more interesting and heartfelt OR it might involve a lot of awkward pauses BUT the question you asked might stir the beginning of a journey to figure out who THEY ARE and start defining the answer to this question.

and the beauty of this question you ask? is that you've got your entire life to define, refine and add things to the answer.