I’m convinced there is only one type of person who truly understands who they are. Those people are the ones moments from death. These people are the only ones who can look back upon moments of their life and see the thread of identity weaving itself through each second of their lives.
For the rest of us, all we can see is a temporary identity. We see who we are at this moment. But we fail to see potential. We don’t see struggles that will come and refine us. We don’t see people who will impact us. We don’t see opportunities that will come when we least expect them. This “you” is only one small portion of who you will eventually become.
I’m fairly certain I’ve never met anyone who knows who they are. Sure, some people have discovered their unique voice and ministry to the world. And some people even feign self discovery. But unless those people don’t develop or grow in the coming years, there’s no way they could possibly know who they are.
The only way we can discover ourselves is through the bumps in the roads and the prayers to a God who knows who we are. True self discovery is impossible without God, because He is the one who created us. He knows how we are meant to function. And He knows we are already His children—even though we don’t look anything like it yet.
There’s a beautiful passage in 1 John 3:2. It says, “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.”
This is encouraging for those of us who might not like where we are right now. There’s more to you right now than you can see.