Meanings are given to us, passed down to us and in some cases, forced upon us. We also add meanings to our lives through experiences and associations. We will spend our lives ridding ourselves of most if not all of them while in search of our true meaning, our true self, which has been buried under the pile.  We will spend our lives picking the words out of our ears, washing them out of our mouths, escorting them out of our minds, scrubbing them off of our skin.  The lies about us simply take up space; they do not add anything to us.  They are not as imbedded in us as we think.  Lies need only to be questioned in order for them to lose their grip on us.

But, this process is not accomplished through a series of steps but is a pilgrimage to the self.  We will spend our lives looking into a mirror in hopes of one day seeing ourselves how God sees us and not how we perceive ourselves.  We will spend our lives speaking until we hear ourselves talking.  We will spend our lives walking until we finally meet our true selves.  We have been born, we live but we will spend our lives becoming.

Our parents have a name for us and we may have even picked up nick names from extended family and friends.  Society has a name for us and with it, labels.  We choose names for ourselves that are reflective of how we want to be seen by others.  But, God also has a name for us and it may not be the name that we are born with, the way we would like to be perceived or the social identity that is given to us at birth.  We can live much of our lives believing that we are one person but like Abram who became Abraham, Sarai who became Sarah and Jacob who became Israel, we can be an altogether different person in the eyes of God.  And it’s is not dependent upon our age, familial relationships or the lack thereof, history or ability.

We might be overlooked by our family like David or like Jesus, thought to merely be the carpenter’s son and Mary’s baby. Our name may not change but instead, person’s perception of us. The disciples lived with Jesus and still did not live like Him.  They heard His parables and witnessed His miracles firsthand; still, they could not answer the question, “What would Jesus do?” They didn’t know His true identity a part from the divine revelation of God (Matthew 16.17).  And neither will we.

This has been the conclusion of many Christian thinkers.  Augustine prayed, “Let me know myself; let me know Thee.”  John Calvin said, “There is no deep knowing of self without a deep knowing of God and there is no deep knowing of God without a deep knowing of self.” Thomas Merton would agree, saying, “There is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace, and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God.  If I find Him, I will find myself and if I find my true self, I will find Him.” The revealing of the self is always divine.

Many us want to become rich or famous but who aspires to become themselves? Who seeks to know the truth about themselves?  We can buy whatever we want but what have we gained if we never possess ourselves, if we never become ourselves?