The Gift of Being Yourself

The Sacred Call to Self Discovery

by David Benner

**Summary**

The spiritual journey is one of leaving the false self of our own creation—the person we pretend to be, believing it will provide us with protection, power, and acceptance from the people around us—in order to settle into the ‘beautifully and wonderfully made’ creation of God.
We fix our eyes on God so that we grow in devotion to Him. We come to realize that our core identity is being the beloved of God, a status that is unaffected by anything we manage (or fail) to accomplish in life. We look at God, looking at us with love despite our imperfections, slowly learning to accept all of ourselves, the parts we like and the parts we don’t. And we find that in meeting God as we truly are, we open ourselves to His transforming presence power.
**Author’s Website:** The Gift of Being Yourself by David Benner

Favorite Quotes

“To truly know love, we must receive it in an undefended state—in the vulnerability of a ‘just as I am’ encounter.”

“The Christian God is known only in devotion, not objective detachment.”

“Love is our identity and our calling, for we are children of Love. Created from love, of love and for love, our existence makes no sense apart from Divine love.”

“Reality must be embraced before it can be changed. Our knowing of ourselves will remain superficial until we are willing to accept ourselves as God accepts us—fully and unconditionally, just as we are. God’s acceptance of us as we are is not in any way in conflict with Divine longing for our wholeness Nor is our acceptance of our self. But until we are prepared to accept the self we actually are, we block God’s transforming work of making us into our true self that is hidden in God. We must befriend the self we seek to know. We must receive it with hospitality, not hostility. No one—not even your own self—can be known apart from such a welcome.”

“Nothing less than such an encounter with God in the depths of our soul will provide access to the deep knowing of both God and self that is our true home. What makes this encounter possible is looking at God looking at us. As we see how deeply loved we are by God—in our depths, complexity, totality and sinfulness—we dare to allow God more complete access to the dark parts of our soul that most need transformation. And God precedes us on this journey, waiting to meet us in the depths of our self.”"