Don’t Try To Be Anyone Other Than Yourself

23 Jul

“You and your purpose in life are the same thing. Your purpose is to be you.”  ~ George Alexiou

“Just who do you think you are anyway?!”  That question has been asked throughout the ages whenever a child has gotten uppity and strayed past certain bounds.  It is a question that has several meanings.  Sometimes it challenges.  Sometimes it chastises.  Sometimes it mocks.  Always it forces a person to do some sort of introspection to determine if he or she did something wrong or was viewed somehow incorrectly.

The sad fact of the matter is, though, that many people, if asked that question, would end up saying, “I don’t really know.”  Identity is something that we have grave issues with throughout our lives.  We take our cues from so many people — parents, siblings, best friends, teachers, peers — and we often struggle with who we are.  One person might tell us we need to be one thing and another tells us something opposite.  If we are not comfortable and confident with ourselves, we can feel very confused about who we are and what we are supposed to be doing.

Alexiou tells it quite simple.  Our purpose is to be who we are.  Pure and simple.  We cannot be anything other than who we are.  If we try to conform ourselves to someone else’s version of who they want us to be, we will feel completely stressed and may even break under the pressure.

God doesn’t want us to be anything other than who we are.  He made us exactly as we are with our own unique sets of gifts and talents.  He wants us to develop as He created us.  He doesn’t want us to be someone other than who we are.

This is one area that our spiritual foe tries to impinge upon.  If the devil can get us to question who we are and what we are about, he can begin to crack our shell and get in.  Don’t listen to him.  Celebrate the person you were created to be.  Don’t try to be someone you know you are not.  Remember, “your purpose is to be you.”

FAITH ACTION:  Ask God to give you a deeper appreciation of yourself.