NSoC 5: Things in Their Identity

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According to Merton, every being in creation has its own identity and individuality and it brings glory to God by being what he created it to be. The more the being is like its true self the more it is like God. God receives less glory from his creatures who try to be other than what they were created for. Guess who bears that stigma most of all? That's right, me. God's other created beings don't bear the shame of diluting his glory, mainly because they have no choice in the matter. God makes a tree; the tree is powerless to be anything other than a tree. There will never be another tree just like it again, either in form or in circumstance, but as long as the tree sways in the breeze and shades the sun and drops its leaves at the appropriate time and bears its fruit and converts carbon dioxide into oxygen, it is fulfilling its destiny. It's the same for a mountain, or a horse, or a small yellow flower on the side of the road.

My problem is that God has given me the freedom to be whatever I like. On the surface that sounds like a great deal, but because I was born into sin my tendency is to choose to be other than what I truly am.

Merton suggests is it possible to go through life changing masks as circumstances dictate and never reveal my true self. There are consequences to this, he warns, for when I finally realize my need for truth, chances are it won't be there for me if I've consistently chosen "the way of falsity."

What to do? Merton describes my "vocation" as joining God in active discovery of the truth of my identity. He says this is what the Bible means by "working out our own salvation," and he declares that it is by far the more difficult path. But he says without partnering with God, the work won't get done, because he is the way, and the way is a way of faith.

Merton explains that I came into the world with a false self because of sin and if I do nothing but accept that false self I might as well not have been born.

He describes the false self as a hollow self without foundation, wrapped about with desires and thirsts that I seek to satisfy because I mistakenly see this false self as the center of the universe.

Where then is my hope? According to Merton, it is "hidden in the love and mercy of God." In other words, my hope of finding my true identity is found in him, and the only way I can find him is by him.

Quaff:
I remember listening to the ocean at night through the open window of a beach condo, the waves rolling ashore with regularity, and realizing that the cycle of crash and recede, crash and recede, had been uninterrupted since the water had been separated from the land. I used to think it a great example of faithfulness, but really it's just the ocean doing what it was created to do. Honor to God for his creative artistry, not to the ocean.

I agree wholeheartedly with Merton that "working" to find our true identities is hard. I know because of the work I've done on my own recovery, the work that I've seen others do on theirs, and the people who gave up and walked away from it. Celebrate Recovery's Principle 1 is a stumbling block to a lot of people: Realize that I am not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable.

Quiz:
On a scale of 1 ("there is no lameness in you") to 10 ("you are as lame as is possible"), where do I rank on the scale scale of lameness if I am concerned about wearing the right mask in front of people at work, church, or home, who are most likely wearing masks themselves?