In spite of my age, I wonder who I am quite often. I get that it is normal for a junior high or high school kid to be wondering that, even a college student wonders. As a contemplative, it is my lot to wonder about such things. How I define myself, how I name myself is important.
Now, if left to my own devices, I would name myself through the eyes of my past. And that is where the problems start, when I name myself through the eyes of who I think I am. That includes my failures, my successes, my feelings about who I should be. That leaves me in the position of seeing myself as the world sees me and Merton and Rohr call this the “false self”.
I am so much more than the picture I have of myself……and so much less. You see, I am not my own person, I belong to another. I think salvation comes in knowing that you do not have to be the person you thing you are, or who you were told you are, or who you think you should be. The “true self” is the person the Eternal One sees when looking at me, or you. The part of scripture that says “work out your own salvation” is the process of learning to see and define oneself from God’s point of view.
Our supreme is example is such a simple one: God said, “I am that I am”. That is very simple in words, very difficult in complexity. And that is us, we “are that we are”. The Eternal has defined us as his own, all we have to do is believe it.
TMM