Socrates is quoted, "Know yourself." Will Rogers said, "Be yourself." James Thurber asked, "Which one of you am I talking to now?" Arthur Miller said, "He never knew who he was." And Popeye replied, "I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam!"

Who are you? Counselors are constantly amazed at the amount of people who don't know who they are. They know their names, where they live and work and so on, but they say to their therapist, "You only see what I want you to see. I only tell you what I think you want to hear. But this isn't me! I don't know who I am, and whoever I am is better than the person I have become!"

How sad.

When I was growing up — back when rocks were being formed — I found the writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote the Tarzan series. I imagined myself swinging through the trees, killing lions with my bare hands, beating my chest in victory and never having to take a bath. Mom was willing to go along, but she had her limits.

As I grew older, my heroes changed. There was Daniel Boone, Eisenhower, Jim Hawkins of Treasure Island, and even Harry Truman. How many people had the courage to say, "The buck stops here."?

What caused me to admire these individuals was that they were unique. They each stood for the same qualities I wanted for myself: courage, honesty, integrity and honor.

What frustrated me as a young person was that sometimes I was not very courageous, not very honest and truly didn't know what integrity and honor were. I now know that courage is not limited to climbing Mount Everest or diving into shark-infested waters. Courage is doing what must be done. Honesty is saying what must be said and honor is being respected.

In biblical times, few people had things like we have today. Possessions were very limited. The one great possession that every family had was honor and that honor was protected at all costs by the male head of the family. Just think about this. The entire future of any family depended upon the words and actions of the father. There did not seem to be family individualism. Even if the eldest son spoke for or was acting on behalf of the family, he spoke as his father would speak and acted as his father would have acted. Every family member was expected to represent the family in an absolutely appropriate manner. To break that sacred requirement was catastrophic!

However, being a young man swept up in the challenge of my era, I thought my mark on history would come if I could make some remarkable contribution to mankind. I didn't know what that might be. I'd most likely be like Steve Martin in "The Jerk," who found his name printed in the phone book and exclaimed, "Now, I am somebody!"

Now that I have bared my soul, what do you most prize? Who are you? Do you know? What would you do to protect your good name or reputation? Would you kill for it, lie for it, die for it? Some would. Some have.

Dr. Leslie Weatherhead, a remarkable church man, wrote, "There are two days in the life of every person. The first day is the day on which we were born and the second day is when we discover why."

I like that — a lot.

Take your Bible and quickly turn to Jeremiah 1:5, "Before you were born I knew you and I sat you aside for a task. You are to be my prophet before the world!"

I can almost see Jeremiah's reply, "What?! I am just a kid. I can't speak before a crowd. Who'd listen to me?"

Our Lord Jesus picked men who certainly never had dreams of authority or notoriety. What did He ask of them? "Follow me."

Why are we here? What do we hope to achieve? What do we want to be? Regardless of all the things possessed, awards given, mountains climbed, perhaps it is to be kind, generous, warm and loving. That is a pretty good life. That's for me.

"Be what you is, because if you try to be what you ain't, then you ain't what you is."

Thanks, God!