The Necessity and Joys of Self-Discovery

The Necessity and Joys of Self-Discovery

A story exists about the general and the cobbler.  As it were two neighbors die within a week of each other and proceed to heaven.  As they stand at the pearly gates, St. Peter greets both of them.  He addresses the first man by name and congratulates him on a life well-lived as an attorney who took pro bono cases thereby assisting poor and powerless persons to obtain justice.  He then salutes the second man as a great general.  The lawyer interrupts and corrects St. Peter, “No, this man is a cobbler.  He spent his whole life as the village cobbler.  I visited his shop periodically for many years.  He was always there as our village shoe maker.”  But, said St. Peter, “His true nature was that of a great general.  Had he engaged a process of self-discovery, he would have become a great general.”

Peter’s exhortation of this cobbler who had been gifted with the capacity to be a great general demonstrates the danger of failing to embrace self-discovery.  What an incredible and exciting life that cobbler missed!  What caused his inability to withdraw from daily busyness and routine obligations to contemplate a different way of living?  Perhaps, had he read Plato, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” he may have taken time to ask himself a few hard questions.  Also, the cobbler could have meditated upon Henry David Thoreau’s maxim, “Go confidently in the directions of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined.”  Still, the cobbler may have benefited greatly from Marianne Williamson’s provocative and challenging thought, “If you think you are wasting your life, chances are, you are.”  Nevertheless, the cobbler’s inability to seek God’s will for his life yielded an inadvertent imprisonment to the drudgery of an average life.

I suggest five components of character to consider in a genuine process of self-discovery.  First, clearly and succinctly enumerate your core beliefs.  What are they?  Can you recite them to enable a child to understand them?  Second, what are your passions; what ideas, dreams, goals and interests burn deeply within your mind and heart?  Some artists go into the studio at noon to paint for a couple of hours; passion seduces and overwhelms them and they find themselves there twelve hours later without taking a break or eating.  Do you possess a similar passion?  Third, what are your gifts, strengths and natural endowments?  These attributes and skills hint toward your potential.  Fourth, how are you “hard-wired” within your personality?  I do not believe God violates our personalities in determining His will for us.  I do not think God chooses an extreme, textbook introvert to be a comedian.  Possibly, an extrovert probably will not find joy and fulfillment in a solitary and monastic life of contemplation and silence.  Finally, what are your cardinal spiritual principles?  Whereas your core beliefs tend toward theoretical and creedal tenets, principles are practical means by which you live daily. 

Self-discovery prevents wasting your life and brings joy and clarity.  I agree with Rick Warren’s primary premise of his monumental bestselling book, The Purpose Driven Life; every human being was born with a definitive and unique purpose.  A very necessary process during your earthly journey is discerning this purpose without ambiguity.  Happiness and joy in life derive from fulfillment in love and work.  To know this bliss, self-discovery, however painstaking, lengthy and toilsome, is a non-negotiable prerequisite.