Who is the real you? Are you the you God made? Is the real "self" in there -- the selfless self -- or are you the you fashioned by the world?
God has called you out of the world, and if it dislikes you for it, if it resists you, if even it hates you, if it withdraws favor from you -- worldly "anointing" -- so be it: for the greatest achievement at the end of life is finishing as the soul God designed.
When we die, we find out who we really are. The first "person" you meet, after Jesus, is your true self. Let not the distortions in the world shape the spirit within you.
Be who you are. ("To thine own self be true.") And who might that be? The real you is strong, is faithful, is humble. You care. You love -- the actual "you" does, the one in there somewhere; the deepest, truest you. The real you favors purity over carnality, selflessness over want.
When you're not the real you, what you take in, what you hold -- the anxieties, jealousies, grudges, false hopes, wrong ambitions, tensions, disappointments -- build and build and rise like frothing floodwaters behind a dam.
You saw that dam in California that
recently threatened to pour forth unto entire communities.
Our false self is the swollen river. Its silt builds around our souls. We become blinded. Our ego does this. We call out to God and are so self-involved and sullied of spirit, and blind, we don't recognize Him when He responds.
You've heard the story about the fellow whose town was flooding. As the waters came, he watched them swallow his yard, then edge up the steps of his porch -- lapping, threatening water -- then enter the first floor as he fled to the second.
He thought of himself as perfectly religious (no little pride, had he), and called out to God to help. That much was fine.
A neighbor came by in a canoe. "Jump in," said his friend. "We'll paddle out of here."
"No," the man responded self-righteously. "I asked God to help me and He will!"
The
water continued to rise -- now towards the ceiling of that second floor
as he climbed out a window and scampered onto the roof. Soon, police
came by in a boat. "Get in," they said. "Hurry! The dam is completely busted."
But this fellow would not budge. "No, I asked God to help me, and He will!" A
helicopter made a final attempt, dropping a rope ladder for him, but
again, the man refused. And as the waters continued to rise, he drowned. When
he got to the afterlife and was having a discussion with God, he said, "You
know, I had faith, Lord. I called out to You. I thought I heard you say
you would come for me. But You let me die!" The Lord turned to him
with a sigh. "I sent a canoe for you," He said. "I sent a police
boat for you. I sent a helicopter for you. What else did you
expect Me to do?"
The lesson or question: What do we expect of Him, and how do we expect prayers to be answered? Are we too self-involved to see Him in everyday assistance, in those little fillips that help us, in the people who aid us?
If you are proud or selfish or materialistic or harsh or prone to lust, this is not the real you. Don't cover it over with false religiosity. The real you is pure. Until we purify, we are not authentic; faults are falsity. We test God more than we have faith. When there is sin, it's a distorted mirror at an amusement park. We're out of touch. We yearn for what we should not yearn. We earn instead of finding true worth. We justify this by criticizing -- focusing on the shortcomings of others, instead of seeing God operating in them, instead of seeing what needs correction in our own beings. We can't see what we look like, when we have pride, in the Eyes of God. Oh woe: false self. This is the hardened blinding crust, the dam, around your heart -- which is where the real you resides (hides?). Only the true self communicates with Heaven. When we are separated from our hearts, we are separated from God.
"I am Who I am," says God, while the devil says, "I am who I am not.
[resources: A Life of Blessings and specials The God of Miracles]
