Learning

Today’s sobering thoughts brought to you by Mary Oliver and Oswald Chambers:

In the beginning, I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed.  I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.  Mary Oliver

The only way we can be of use to God is to let Him take us through the crooks and crannies of our own characters.  It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves.  Oswald Chambers

It occurs to me that those phrases, “such a stranger to myself I hardly existed” and “it is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves” are even more sobering when I consider that no one knows more about me than me.  Still, there is hope that I might know (or at least learn more about) myself if consent to “go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it” and “let Him take [me] through the crooks and crannies of [my] own character.”   That sounds like some fun, albeit occasionally embarrassing, and a whole lot like life.