1. Who am I?

2. What do I love?

                3. How then shall I live?

1. WHO AM I? To that question many of us would begin by naming the roles we play in a family: for example I am a mother, father, son, daughter, lover, partner, friend.

Who are you?

God has created each of us as a unique, unrepeatable person. God's divine life lives in each one of us and finding out who we are in God's eye is vital to determining who we are in our own eyes. And our challenge in life is to get to know who that person is and what we are called to be and do in our lives.

2) WHAT DO I LOVE? If you could get up tomorrow morning and do anything you would like to do what would it be? Would you be going to the same job? What would be different amount tomorrow if there were no time constraints, do one else to please, just a whole day for you to do whatever you wanted that would make you happy and fulfilled. What is it you enjoy doing with your time? How would things be different in your day if you did the things you love doing? We come alive when we are doing the things we love to do.

Have you ever noticed how fast time flies when you're doing your favorite hobby, reading a book you enjoy, or sitting and watching the sun set at the beach with the person you love. Sit down and make a list of the things that you love to do, and see what changes you can make in your schedule to include more of these activities. Think about the people you love to be around. What are those people like? How do they fill you up? What do you offer to them? It is so important to be around people that give us joy and love in life. Making sure that we put time in our busy schedules for the people we love is vital to our well being.

3) HOW THEN SHALL I LIVE? If we know who we are and we know what we love, it should then affect how we live. When we know our purpose and we are in touch with the things we love we can go about doing what fulfills us. Purpose is not necessarily about what we do, it is what we are.

As we perform our tasks, purpose - not salary, need, or desperation - gives those tasks meaning. Purpose is more than a goal; it makes us know what we must do because we simply cannot do anything else. Purpose is not about money. When you are on purpose, the money and everything else you need and desire will come to you. Purpose is not about being liked by other people, being famous, or necessarily successful in the world's view. It's about knowing who you are and putting that knowledge to use in a meaningful way. A way that makes someone else, as well as yourself, feel that they are better off because of who you are and what you do. When we know who we are and what we love our purpose for being each and every day will reach out far beyond us to change our world.

I did a memorial service yesterday for a man who died this past week at the young age of 43. His partner of 24 years wanted someone to perform the service who would be sensitive to their lifestyle. His partner thought that there would be about 35-50 people who would come to the service. As we began the church continued to fill up and when the opening hymn started I would guess there were about 125-150 people in attendance. I had included a part in the service for people to share their memories of the young man in celebration of his life. As person, after person came the microphone - everyone talked about who this man was at the core of his being. They said he was compassionate, that he would call to check on how this person or that person was doing. Some of these were people that he went to grade school or high school with. Others would get up and talk about how he would drop a card or gift in the mail because he knew it would make them feel better. All of the people who got up to speak talked about the way their lives have been better because this young man cared about them - made them become a better person.

Who we are, what we love when lived out in our daily lives can change the world.

Father J. Nash has said this: "God sent every person into the world with a special message to deliver, a special song to sing, and a special act of love to bestow. No one else can speak my message or sing my song, or offer my love. These are entrusted to me."