Along the journey towards the greater, there are many small, daily steps to better understand oneself, God, and others. This is one of my “daily steps”.
“To be a saint means to be myself.”⠀
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I don’t know how many times I’ve referred to this line by #thomasMerton since I first discovered it. This line alone is powerful but in prepping for a presentation on the Saints last week, I found more of what surrounded the quote from his book #SeedsofContemplation.
“A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him….The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like Him….This particular tree will give glory to God by spreading out its roots in the earth and raising its branches into the air and the light in a way that no other tree before or after it ever did or will do….
The pale flowers of the dogwood outside this window are saints. The little yellow flowers that nobody notices on the edge of that road are saints looking up into the face of God.
The great, gashed, half-naked mountain is another of God’s saints. There is no other like him. He is alone in his own character; nothing else in the world ever did or ever will imitate God in quite the same way. That is his sanctity….
For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.”
What I’ve noticed lately is that there are so many incredible people in this world helping people discover their true selves, the person God is calling them to be. This morning I listened to a speech therapist @talknmore speak about her role giving voice to the children she serves on the #bearthelight podcast by @christiannesquires… and it reminded me of all the speech therapists and occupational therapists and audiologists that helped my son discover his true voice… and keep helping him even to this day. They wouldn’t have been able to do that if they weren’t living into the person God called each of them to be in the first place.
So as we prepare to enter into a new #decade soon, my #prayer for myself and all of you is that we can continue to discover our own unique role, find our own unique voice, and live into it even more in #2020.
[Celebrating #ThomasMerton today on the anniversary of his death… someone who wrestled with understanding himself and his role in bringing about the kingdom of God.]
How will you work on discovering your true self this upcoming year?⠀
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