Remembering Who I Am

I have the most problems when I forget who I am and whose I am. No, I don’t suffer from short-term memory loss. At least I have no memory of such loss. Troubles accumulate when I approach a decision and forget that I am a Christian, a member of the family of God. When my brothers and I left home as adolescents, our father would often exhort, “Remember who you are.” Besides belonging to God, he wanted us also to remember that we came from a family where we had learned to respect others, to obey the law, to make ethical decisions, and to love one another. When the moment of decision looms, practicing those values solidifies my identity. When I forsake them, my moral amnesia leaves me gasping in fear, all too aware of what I have lost. Family, of origin and of God, fortifies me against all that is wrong in the world.