Who Am I? Who Are You?

Moving from one location to another, as I did very recently, means that you have to prove who you are over and over again. It’s that necessary but distasteful “change of address” process. Merchants, doctors, the Postal Service, it seems that the whole world has to be notified about your new address. And some of them are pretty picky. For good reason, I know, but picky is picky.

In a phone call to an insurance company, I was asked: Your name, please. Your address. Your phone number. The last four digits of your social security number. Your former address. Your spouse’s name. Your date of birth. The location of your birth. The twenty-seven digit number of your policy. The date of the policy issue. The name of the person who wrote the policy. At this point I said: Sorry but I don’t remember the man’s name. That was thirty years ago. Then came the verdict: I’m sorry, the voice said, but you have not proved your identity and I cannot help you. Then he told me to write a letter to the insurance headquarters.

It takes about 25 questions answered correctly to prove who I am to an insurance company. It takes one act of kindness, charity, or compassion in the name of Christ to reveal my true identity. I am a child of God and a brother of the Risen Christ. You and I are not in the “doing good deeds” business. We are in a relationship that names who we are and guides behaviors that become blessings for others. I rejoice in the profound simplicity of my true identity and for the one who knows me through and through. He knows my name…just like he knows yours. Thanks be to God for the Shepherd who knows his sheep.