Becoming who we are meant to be

I want to recommend that you read Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation, at the very least read pages 34-36.  For me these pages hold the most profound idea, that we waste our lives try to construct this illusionary self.  We stick labels and experiences on ourselves to make us appear to be who we want the world to see us as.  We all do this.  We do things, we say things, we wear things that we think reflect who we are when they are really who think we are.  And it isn't just the secular world who do this.  Have you ever worn a cross so other people know you are Christian?  Carried a Bible and wanted people to see it?  When I joined the Secular Franciscans I was disappointed at first to find out we no longer wore habits.

We can not make ourselves, we have to discover ourselves.  Who we are in God.