We do not belong to ourselves. We are not our own. This is what it means to be created in the image of God. We belong to God, and we are made to become like God. And yet many of us—in fact, all of us at some time or other—do not want to become like God. You might say that this is our biggest problem, not wanting to be like God. This is because our hearts are flawed. We’d rather please ourselves, and so we seek our hearts desire in the world. We conform to the world, not to God, and we think that this is the way to make it.

Few of us want to grow where we’ve been planted. We want to be on the other side, where the grass is greener. We want to be somewhere else, or we want to be somebody else. Hardly anybody is content being what he or she is. We all move about “in worlds unrealized” as the poet says, but hardly anyone always desires that “one thing needful” that can realize us and our world. Christ does, the Mother of God does, and the glorified saints do. But do I? Do you?

These days some men want to become women, and some women want to become men, apart from how they were formed in the womb. But practically all of us want to become many things apart from God; and unless we pray and constantly look for God deep in our hearts, we forget our high calling. Every day we Christians struggle to say with Christ to the Father, “Thy will be done…not my will but Thine”.  We struggle to say this with all our heart. For we know that when we live as we will, without seeking God’s will—when we seek our own desire apart from God—we become far less than what we were made to be.

Then we become like the rest, and we fall with the rest.

*

There used to be a motto of General “Stonewall” Jackson writ large in brass, set in stone, and placed over the main barracks entry at The Virginia Military Institute:

You may be whatever you resolve to be.

This was drilled into me as a cadet, but is it true?  We all have goals in life, but sometimes they are unrealistic. Many are disappointed and must adapt, regardless of their resolve. Doors are closed. Other doors open.  Life works this way.   

What’s more, we haven’t a right to become whatever we resolve to be, although we are free to pursue our own ends. This is because what makes us human is the image of God in us, nothing else. The image comes first, then our freedom.  And because of this, it is possible for us to become more like Christ each moment, day-by-day—if we so desire. 

*

What I am talking about is becoming human—that is, real to ourselves, to others, and most importantly, real to God. For to be like Christ is to realize our humanity. And we do this by resolving to become like Him.  Then, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we can begin to realize The Kingdom of Heaven on earth together.

Fr. Paul Martin
Annunciation & St. Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Church
New Buffalo, MI