You have put off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self.
This is the new being which God, the Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image,
in order to bring you to a full expression of himself.
Colossians 3:9-11
EASTER means RE-NEW-AL
So, if there is a true self, there must be a false self. In a few words, the false self is our idea of who we are and this image is formed by our families, friends, and culture. It is forged around cultural ideas of success, sex appeal, wealth, our occupation, the things we own, the things we wear and the amount of influence we wield. These kinds of external things form the false self and they are external identities that we put on like a coat – whether it fits well or not. Often when living out of our false identity we feel awkward, we are chronically stressed and lonely. Sometimes it seems like we are always striving to look good, to pretend that we are indeed worthy of the coat and not some imposter. It produces a tyrannical slavery and detachment from real life all the while screaming its false promises of the good life.
Discovering one’s true self in God is the shedding of the ill-fitting garments. It is moving away from these identities that don’t bring real life. As we learn to experience and accept the love of God we find our place in the world. We begin to realize that our belonging is not based on our ability to live up to the expectations of an often-fickle culture or even our well-meaning families. As we move closer to God, as divine love draws us we learn that we can shed our selfishness, our self-centeredness, fear of being rejected and realize we no longer have to pretend. We can begin to cast off the baggage that has obscured who we truly are and as this begins to fall away it reveals more and more of the good creation we were created to be. The life we seek, the life that really satisfies, is found in God in us, not outside of us. Jesus taught that the issues of life flow from inside us (our heart) not what eat or drink.
