“So what’s defining you nowadays?” Each fall Emerging Journey groups come upon a discussion of this question in Session 5: Paying Attention to Character. We each answer this question not so much by filling-in-the-blank on a piece of paper, but by living it out with our lives. For it is amidst the demands of the everyday that we reflect a working definition of who we are. Much, if not most, of the time we are not conscious of our working definition. It operates below the surface of our thoughts and intentions, our priorities and relationships. Spiritual writer Henri Nouwen insightfully points out that we typically live out an answer to this question in one of three ways (1) I am what I do (2) I am what others say about me, or (3) I am what I have. In a series of talks given in the early 1990’s Nouwen unpacked the way in which God is inviting us to understand and claim a truer identity as loved children of God. Allow Nouwen’s words on these series of video clips to stimulate both thought and prayer around how you are currently defining yourself…and how God’s Spirit may be inviting you to embrace your true identity as a loved child of God (Ephesians 1:3-6). Blessings…