Always be the best version of yourself. Always be who you really are.

Always be who God made you to be, the “you” you feel deep down, the you who is as comfortable as an old shoe.

Yes, others try to take us away from that. They strip us of true identity. They want us to conform with their images of how we should be, where we should go, the way we should speak, think, and act. We are spokes in their wheel, in society’s concept of us.

But God is interested in the truth and the true you, because that’s who He fashioned.

Be true to thyself, an English bard once said. When we lie to ourselves, we are telling the greatest lie. When we live a life that isn’t ours, that wasn’t designed for us, we stray into unhappiness and unease and often dis-ease.

Don’t change with every person and place.

Dismiss the judgments of others. What in your life has made you feel the best about yourself? Your ego is not you.

The real you is good. The real you  has: unique gifts. The real you has an entirely individualistic perspective on life. The real you has a unique relationship with God–as close as anyone who has walked the face of this planet, including saints, when we seek that truth through the purity of holiness. Purgatory strips away falsity. The true you is the “you” who enters Heaven.

Holiness is wholeness. When we are truly ourselves, we are totally put together. And until that happens, we feel something is off. We squirm. We’re not “quite right.” We’re scattered into parts.

It is in deepest prayer, meditation, and sacrifice, in unselfishness, in humility, that we tap into our real selves, and when we do, we reach the peace of our destiny.

–MHB

[resources: Michael Brown online retreat video and pilgrimage to Medjugpore]