Be Yourself! Express Yourself! These are common cheers today and I am sure I have said the same myself, but I am beginning to wonder if these mantras are encouraging efforts that may miss the mark somewhat. Don’t get me wrong, I understand where it’s coming from, I have lived it, we can sometimes be so buried by events, lost in confusion or tied to real or perceived expectations that we don’t even know where to start – don’t even know where we start. And I certainly agree that we should not try to be someone we’re not, I’m just not sure we need to make any special effort to be ourselves either. We are ourselves. We exist. And because we exist, we express. There is no more need to tell me to exist than there is to tell me to be or to express myself – because I am.
I am a product of the Great, I AM. I am a little (one of many) “I am” in His image. My place as “myself” is dependence on the Maker of me who knows me infinitely from the outset. From that place of dependence I am expressed purely to others without making an effort to do so. For dependence is not effort, but the lack of it. Like a magnifying glass, I am merely the lens through which my object is more clearly seen by others. And so, my aim, is simply, to have the correct Object. When my goal is to be known rather than to be used, the self becomes the object and is magnified in place of its Maker.
I think a more appropriate motto would be, “give yourself” or “share yourself.” Yes, you are you! Yes, you are free! Go give yourself and your efforts to someone else. Not as a door mat to be walked over, but as a tool through which the Maker is magnified.
dontgobackwards 