The gift of "finding yourself!"

     Have you ever heard anyone say something like this, "I just need to find myself!"  Or "I just need to figure out who I am!"  It seems like a lot of young people are on this journey of "finding themselves."  I think a lot of older people are on this same journey, they just might not use this same language.  I know that I had to begin this journey of "finding myself"  as a teenager.
     I have looked to find my identity under a lot of different titles, "athlete, scholar, biker, banker, pastor, body-builder, strongman, husband, father, and even missionary."  But it seemed like I could never fully "find myself" in just one of these titles.  I had to "find myself" under a totally different title.
     This journey of "finding yourself" isn't anything new, but is old as time.  I was recently reading in Matthew 16, where Jesus asks the question, "Who do people say that I am?"  His disciples have a myriad  of different answers to what popular opinion is about Jesus, but then he asks a much more difficult question.  "Who do you say that I am?"  Your answer to this question has so much more to do with this "finding yourself" journey than you may think.
     Peter's response is bold, "You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God!"  I love what Jesus says to him.  "Peter, you didn't figure this out on your own."  Or "This wasn't revealed to you by any human source."  "God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am!"  This vision or revelation of Christ's true identity was a gift from God!
     Look at how the Message paraphrase states the rest of the story: "And now I am going to tell you who you are, really are."  Once Peter found out who God really was, he could find out who he really was.  You can read all the Self-help books that you want.   You can "look inside yourself" all you want, but you will never truly "find yourself."  As this passage in Matthew later states, "Self-help is no help at all."
     Vision for your life is not man-made.  It is a gift from God.  The creation cannot tell itself why it was created.  It must ask the creator why it was created.  You must know who God is before you can know who you are.
     My journey of "finding myself"  was ultimately settled at the destination of an entirely different title: "HIS!"