"What Color Are You?"

“What color are you?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” my son responds. He looks down at the skin on his hand and then back up at me with a quizzical look on his face.

“I don’t mean your skin color...I mean your personality,” I say, laughing.

We had just finished eating dinner; my wife had already gotten up and was puttering around, though still within earshot of the conversation that was about to unfold. I caught a glimpse of her looking over the top of the couch back towards us, eager to engage, but awaiting her son’s response.

I like to ask open-ended questions like this to my family. For example, “If you were an animal, what would you be?” and “If someone else were to describe you with one word, what do you think it would be?” Besides being an exercise in introspection, it’s fun...well, mostly - LOL. Case in point, the title of this blog entry, “What color are you?”

It’s a good question because it forces you to oversimplify “you”, as a personality, a character. Interestingly enough, most people associate basic colors with specific emotions. For example, red is typically reserved for aggression, blue for peacefulness, brown for earthy, etc. This affords the game-players a reasonably consistent platform for discussion.

I won’t tell you precisely which colors we all chose for ourselves, but suffice to say, as I suspected when I asked the question in the first place, none of us completely agreed with each other’s self-assessments. One of us supposed we were one color while the two remaining tried to convince them otherwise, and the two others discussed different shades beyond their original responses, even considering other primary colors being mixed in (this precipitated a five minute debate over what basic colors made up the color brown - LOL).

Why do I share this? Better yet, why do I pluck at such things, risking the otherwise calm closure to a nice dinner? Because I’ve always thought that people have a different viewpoint of themselves than others do. While my advice to my sons has always been, dogmatically, “Be yourself, always,” it’s a good exercise to step back and ponder what we project as “us” to the rest of the world. If you’re around people whom you trust will be honest with you, the fruit of the discussion may prove quite valuable, if you’re humble.

Here’s a perfect example. Unequivocally and resoundingly, I am dubbed “red” by the two other people living under the same roof as me. While I understand why they might say that, I’m a little bummed out because just beneath my “red” exterior is a very soft heart. I sometimes revolt a little when I see how decidedly easy it is for others to suggest my “color”, even though I already know what they are going to say before they say it. In all fairness to my family, they do concede that I’m not pure red, hardly, for I have concentrations of green in me the deeper you dig. It’s no wonder my favorite color is green - maybe we like the colors we wish to be more of??? I know that the favorite colors of everyone else at the table that day were the ones they thought they were, or at least more of than others proposed.

In any case, my point is twofold. First, the personality that is received by others isn’t always the one we think we are projecting (and possibly not the one God sees, for God sees the heart - 1 Samuel 16:7). Second, and most importantly, while little games like this one are fun, at the end of the day, we mustn’t forget one simple principle about who we are and whose opinion matters most. I’ll let Paul’s words explain this second point most succinctly.

But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.
Earlier in that same letter to the church at Corinth, Paul wrote:

But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
While the context of v2:15 is different, the underlying principle of each man standing before the holy, sovereign, righteous Judge of all creation is the same. That is, if one Person is going to set us straight as to what “color” we are, it’s the Lord God. In fact, in all fairness to His omniscience and in light of our own delusions, we must concede that He knows such things better than we do about ourselves! I chuckle when pondering what He must be thinking when we propose certain things to be true about ourselves, things that leave others scratching their heads, wondering if we ever look in the mirror (both literally and figuratively).

If nothing else, such a game as the one I’ve described above might spawn a bit of critical thinking and self-examination, something that most of us could do a lot more of. While we ought never take someone else’s opinion of us as “gold” (only God knows the absolute truth), we might at least consider the words of those we trust. I suppose that is what good friends are for, right?

Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.
I suppose it doesn’t really matter what “color” God reveals that you are, for He has chosen to make you that way. The greater tragedy is not finding out that your true color is different than you originally thought, but rather not accepting the truth when your Creator reveals it to you.

I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
There are enough actors in Hollywood.

Be yourself. Love what God has made, especially as a born-again believer in Christ.

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins