stuff i think

"Who am I? And why am I here?"
Admiral James Stockdale

It could have been called the beginning of the end for the 1992 Perot campaign...when his Vice Presidential nominee opened up the debate with the question "Who am I? Why am I here?" Of course, rhetoriticians assured us, it was just a portion of an introduction, taken out of context...but Admiral Stockdale exasperated the problem when he never got back to answering his own questions. As the debate wore on, many of us wondered "Yea, who is he? and why IS he here?". It was not the sort of thing one hopes for in a vice president. The ironic thing is that it's a series of questions that we all ask ourselves regularly...perhaps not on the high wire of a presidential campaign, but surely in the dark recesses of our mind. We all question our purpose, seek for our place, hope for a little more present day reality, even at the expense of a latter day vision.

It's in these two questions - these seemingly self-centered questions - that we see the first inclining of a desire for destiny. It is not enough to just be us. It is not enough to be randomly here. Our hearts are parched for purpose.

God the Father lies at the root of these questions. He placed the ache in our hearts, knowing that only He could satisfy it. He gave us a natural craving for what only He provides - a fulfilled sense of being. It's just like the Father to seed the test of life with questions that point us to Him.

Likewise, there is an enemy yearing to answer those questions for us. He declares that you are his, and that you were made for you. He screams his lies - that eternal being was created for seventy years' pleasure, that being can be found in buying, that we are all there is. His lies leave us staring at the gravestones across the fence, knowing ours will be there one day, and that we have spent all we have on bread that was moldy the day it arrived.

Who are you? Why are you here? Pick your answer and live acordingly.