"What giants?" Asked Sancho Panza."The ones you can see over there," answered his master, "with the huge arms, some of which are very nearly two leagues long." "Now look, your grace," said Sancho, "what you see over there aren't giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone." ― Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
What we do, rather than what we think, or imagine is the truest expression of who we are; the person we are becoming, by learning from our daily experiences living in fulfilment of our true self, always present asking us to listen to His words encouraging us to let Him lead us through life's journey of self discovery.
You can't keep your true self hidden forever; before long you'll be exposed. You can't hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known. ~ Luke 12:2
Literature's hero narratives remind their readers that life's journey is a daily learning lesson illustrating the pitfalls of believing that our superficial image is all there is, and that reaching within is nothing more than a day dream, an imaginary quest into nothingness. Whereas the experienced pioneer of life's dramas learns from their bitter struggles that our true is only known when trusting and implementing His wise words guiding us along the road best taken.
Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom, Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
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