The journey through life

“Seek for yourself, O man; search for your true self. He who seeks shall find himself in God.” ~
Saint Augustine …

Many of us spend most of our lives searching for who we are–seeking out what defines us as a human being and what defines us spiritually. Here, Saint Augustine is imparting wisdom he came to discover through his own journeys: the answers to the questions we seek are defined in God. And being a spiritual man myself, I hold the belief that God is everywhere, so I need not search far and wide. I can find Him in the trees and the flowers; I can find Him in the people I encounter today; I can find him in the midst of all the busyness and bustle… but I must choose to seek.

Perhaps many of us can relate to the journey Saint Augustine experienced in life. He was a wild young boy who struggled to overcome his profligate ways–stealing fruit from a neighbor’s garden, living a very promiscuous lifestyle in which he and his friends often boasted of their sexual exploits, having an affair with a young woman that lasted for 13 years that bore him a son. He lived the life of a sinner, and he lived it well. But his is a story of salvation that I have come to appreciate. He writes in his books “The Confessions,” of how his mother came to save him from self-destruction, and how he came to find a life of spiritual grace.

The point of bringing this up is that it clearly speaks to me of how a person is to seek out their true self–even when he or she may feel that they are at a point of despair, or when they may feel that they have lost all control and that life no longer makes sense. It is never too late, nor too early, to begin the search for who we are. I have gone down some pretty dark and lonesome paths in my life–paths that perhaps I would have been better off avoiding. But the journeys I face always bring me closer to who I am–and in finding myself, I also find that I am that much closer to Him.

Find God in the world around you today–people, places, things… all of life.

Questions to consider:

Take a moment to reflect upon the person you are now. Is this person your “true self?”

How might feeling closer to God affect your life?

When God speaks to you, do you listen?

For further thought:

“Maybe the atheist cannot find God for the same reason a thief cannot find a policeman.” ~ Unknown