R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Thoughts

“When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.”
Albert Einstein

My purse was stolen about a month ago, and I am just now getting around to that awful ordeal of dealing with the driver's license bureau. I went online to find out what arcane documents I would need to find and take with me. Surprisingly enough, the site said all I need to get a new license is proof of identity. Something to prove who I am. I need a picture that shows that I am Suzy Brown. Well, the only things I had, my driver's license and my Bally ID card, were both in my purse when it was stolen. I didn't have a yearbook picture or a student I.D. All of those had my other names anyway. So I took my folder of important documents and my book, Radical Recovery which had my picture on the back hoping that with some begging and pleading that would be enough. The replacement was amazingly fast and efficient. There was only one other person in line, and the clerk gave me a new driver's license without asking for anything except my Social Security card which I proudly handed over. But I got to thinking on the way home about my identity. "Who am I really?" That was a huge question for me during the whole divorce process. I had spent the major part of my adult life being someone's wife. I spent months trying to figure out who I was as a person, deep down. I am once again sure that the most important answer to "Who Am I?" is a spiritual one. Everything else is just window dressing. I am a spiritual being. I am the home of God's eternal spirit. Part of God's living eternal spirit resides within me, and it cannot be damaged or stolen or hurt in any way. Even if the rest of my life is in an unbelievable uproar, my inner being, my true self, the real person I am, is secure.

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?"
1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV)