Some nights

    Once upon a time, a devout man of faith was lost on a road late at night. The way was dark and he had taken a wrong turn on his travel. The man found himself wandering lost on unknown road looking for an inn or farm house as shelter for the night. Around a bend in the road he came across an army garrison. The night watchmen, holding up his torch, called out to the shadowy figure of the lost man on the road, "Who are you? What are you doing here?" The man stopped, stunned at the questions. The watchman called out again, "Who are you? What are you doing here?" The devout man responded this time, "How much do you get paid to stand here to keep watch?" The watchman, truly surprised by this question posed to him, answered in a confused query, "Why do you ask that?" The lost man said, "I will pay you what you make now to stand outside my door and ask me those two questions every morning when I walk out my door."

Who are you? What are you doing here? Or conversely, who am I? What am I doing here?



This story is not original to me. It is an old tale from a time gone by. I once heard re-iterated by a similarly devout scholar. When I first heard it, I nodded my head in agreement and thought, "how very deep." How very shallow of me. Then the question came back. I had no good answer, but shallow ones. Who am I? What am I doing here? The questions obviously transcend the present and ask hard questions of the life you live. How do other know you? How do you know yourself? What do you invest your time and your heart into? What is the legacy of who you are and what you do?

I have taken to asking myself these questions every morning as I start my daily routine and evening as I prepare for sleep. Sometimes these questions haunt me through the day, especially when the present doesn't line up with how I desire to answer, and when I don't know how to answer. I think that is the point though. There is a dichotomy, what am I doing about it? I have one short life to burn, and its course is swift. How will I spend it before I go?

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"Who are you and what are you doing here?"