In order to find God in ourselves, we must stop looking at ourselves, stop checking and verifying ourselves in the mirror of our own futility, and be content to be in Him and to do whatever He wills, according to our limitations, judging our acts not in the light of our own illusions, but in the light of His reality which is all around us in the things and people we live with.
Interpretation
True self-discovery requires looking beyond oneself and aligning with a greater reality.
This quote emphasizes that to truly understand our spiritual nature and find God within ourselves, we must move away from self-centeredness and the illusions we often create about our worth and abilities. Instead of using our own flawed perceptions as a basis for judgment, we should seek to align our actions with divine will and recognize the inherent reality that exists in the world and in our interactions with others.
In practice
In a sermon about humility, a speaker might use this quote to illustrate the importance of focusing on a higher purpose.
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything.
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.
Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.
You are made in the image of what you desire.
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
Not to share our own wealth with the poor is theft from the poor and deprivation of their means of life; we do not possess our own wealth, but theirs.
Really, a young Atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Dangers lie in wait for him on every side.
Heaven is a state of mind, not a location, since Spirit is everywhere and in everything.
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'.
The mere physical man is like the ant crawling on the paper, who observes black lettering and attributes its production to the pen and nothing more.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.