On The Road To Perfection
Episode 182: Being Who We Are Supposed To Be
Being Who We Are Supposed To Be is something you hear in our episodes all the time. Make no mistake about it, we are not experts at it in practice - but we are a lot better than we used to be because we are purposeful in our pursuit of being perfect in it - hence being on the road to perfection! Because of our ups and downs, we can share what being who we are supposed to be is and how to put it into practice - and how to recover when we fail at it. In this episode, we share what it means to be who you are supposed to be, and how to get to being that!
Starting with a brief history of how we got to this way of life and raising children (and ourselves!), we get into our natural calling as Men and Women - and other possibilities if there are chromosomal challenges. We talk about that natural calling God wants us to be, and then what comes out of that - what other vocations beyond being a Man or a Woman.
When growing up, we are asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And the answer always seems to be a doing - a Fireman, A scientist, a Doctor. But those are "doings", not "beings".
But then we spend our life pursuing doing what we think we want to do, instead of spending that time discerning who God wants us to be. If we discern His intention and desire for our life - our being - He will then provide for us the necessary means to support that being: the doing.
We all have a personal call to holiness: Our vocation. Our vocation - our being who we are supposed to be - is who God created us to be to achieve holiness and He then reveals through discernment how we are going to walk that path, and be on this road to holiness: the road to perfection.
First, we get on the wrong foot, not discerning our Man or Woman vocation and recognizing that he has created us to be those, and then we get on anther wrong foot by not discerning the call to holiness, but instead a call to pleasure - what is going to be fun, make me happy, give me pleasure; as opposed to what is going to fulfill my mission that God has planned for me and bring me JOY. Jesus says, "I came that you might have joy, and that it might be complete."
Being who we are supposed to be will bring us joy. It follows, then, that not being who we are supposed to be will bring us misery and unhappiness. Which explains why so many people in this world do not have joy: they are not being who they are supposed to be.
Complete joy is in Heaven, and being who we are supposed to be sets us up for Heaven. If we decide who we are going to be without God in the discernment process, we may be far off the mark.
We further explain how a boy knows he is a man, and a girl a woman. And who gets to tell them when they are. As parents we do a lot of telling and instructing on the doing, but rarely on the being, that leads to knowing when Man- or Womanhood has been achieved.
There are virtues necessary to master or have in good practice to achieve being who we are supposed to be. We discuss some of these, and what true obstacles they can be to becoming who we are supposed to be.
In twenty minutes, we squeeze almost an entire three-night parish mission. Hope you can hang on for the ride!
Some items on our site that will help in Being Who We Are Supposed To Be, or at least get you started:
TWMWU: He Was Made Perfect
Podcast Episode: Discerning God's Will - Part 1 - Episode 74