The Torn and tattered Red,

The dirtied white and blue

If she lives or dies Is up to me and you

Her white is pure and true

Red for blood that we have shed

The blue our vigilance

Fifty stars to light our view

So, don’t stop believing

Just withstand the wind and rain

Remember God’s love for us

Flies high in Red, White and Blue

Sometimes we’ve lost our way

Forgotten who we are

With the light to guide our way

Reflected in those stars

We are all God’s chosen People

United is how we stand

We were all created equal

We don’t expect you would understand

It’s not the cloth that matters

Nor the pole for which we fight

But the foundation of our values

Of the Lord’s bright shining light

So stand when she is honored

No knee shall bend in flight

She bows to no man or nation

Only humbly within God’s Sight

What am I?  Am I the things I say?  To some extent, I am held by the words that indicate my beliefs.  I am accountable to the damage, praise or influence of my tongue, so in words you may find part of “me”.  Am I what I do?   Yes, I must agree that my actions provide a frame of reference for who I was and who I am working to be.  Therefore, you will find “me” in the steps I take as they define me over time.  Can you find me in the things from which I abstain?  Of course, to a minimal extent the ideas, pursuits and philosophies from which I diverge indicate relative barriers of faith, morals and regulations that further profile each of us.  Am I what others say of me?  It cannot be denied that the power of ones reputation, the positive or negative reflections described by those who know us often shapes our character and public position.  Am I measured by my thoughts?  Absolutely, action is preceded by cogitation, however personal, thoughts still to some private measure provides a fragmentary construct or a part of what’s makes me, “me”.  So, since what I do, say, believe, think and how the world perceives me all make up the “who” of me, how then does what God thinks of me matter even in the slightest?

If what makes up “me” is all within or without of me in a grand interaction with reality, am I not simply defined by the environmental parameters of existence?  Is the universe defined by my senses, by “me” and my interactions with the states of matter within that universe?  If the world and all within it is defined by my relationship with it, where in does the fact that God created that universe lay claim upon my participation in that relationship.  Am I then free to define myself as I have previous surmised or does that honor, that sovereignty, in fact lay solely in God’s purview?  Or for that matter if the power to define all that makes “me” reside in God’s sovereign authority then how does what the enemy says about me, or for that matter what I say about myself indicate the “who” of me even in the smallest atomic segment?

It matters because of the power of choice, given us by God so that we might be to some extent sovereign in our resemblance to God.  Without the authority to define ourselves or be defined by the sensory measures of a physical, spiritual and mental world we are simply predetermined in our passage through God’s Universe.  Therefore, it is a gift of God, that I am allowed to think, believe, act, speak, feel or reflect upon my own perceptions or those of the world around me.  Am I those aforementioned components or defining mechanisms or Am I simply what God has made me?  Are they mutually exclusive or in antithetical association? How you deal with the described condition will determine the answer.  The choice has always been the gateway to defining the man, until the choice is made the man remains a mere part of a predetermined creation.  The choice defines, the choice is the power, the gift, the sovereign indication of our affinity to God.  Choose and give yourself the authority of definition instilled within you by your Creator.