Have you raised this question before? When was the last time you put forward this assertive statement?
Perhaps, sometime in the past, you found yourself in a situation where your dignity as a person had been trampled underfoot, taken for granted, insulted, or looked down with contempt. Maybe you had been thrown out of work unreasonably, or you had been the butt of an offensive joke. Possibly, that could be the last straw that sent your temper flying into a rage.
You began to imagine how to put down a peg or two, the person or persons who treated you like a scum. And in a fit of anger, you asked, with eyes bulging out of their sockets, “Do you know who I am?” You started a recital of your achievements and accomplishments, your medals and honors; you went through a repertoire of your connections in the government, your royal influence with kings and queens, your pedigree that included a blood line from Magellan. And with a voice oozing with pride, you asserted, “ Don’t you know that I am the great, great, great, great granddaughter of Magellan’s great, great, great granddaughter?”
Do you know who I am?
I was confronted with one of the above situations some years ago. The hubris in me wanted to scream in the person’s face , “ Do you know who I am?” As the proclivity of expressing this statement of arrogance and self–importance was about to take the upper hand, a thought crossed my mind- a disturbing, poignant thought that painfully checked the condition of my heart.
In my mind was a vivid picture of a man, being whipped, divested of his clothes, crowned with thorns, nailed to the cross, and there, left to die in shame. He never shouted at his tormentors and at the people around that cross, “ Do you know who I am?” Instead of arrogance, he disarmed his abusers with words of humility and encompassing love as he uttered in agony, “ Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” LUKE 23:34.
As that Calvary scene paraded before my mind’s eye, I felt a tug from a line of an old song:
“ He could have called ten thousand angels to destroy the world and set Him free, but He chose to die for you and me.”
He disarmed not only his tormentors. HE DISARMED ME of my vanity!!
“ Do you know who I am?” You ask.
I may not know you. But Someone does. He knows you from head to toe. His name is Jesus.
He knows everything about you. He knows when you sit down and when you rise up. Psalm 139:1-2.
He knew you even before you were conceived. JEREMIAH 1:4-5
Do you know Him?
One day, when conditions are ripe for arrogance to come to the fore and we are tempted to say haughtily, “ Do you know who I am?” may we remember that dying Man and His words on the cross and lay that expression of self-importance at His feet, and there, let it die a natural death.
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