Know Thyself

I guess we can never know ourselves completely. I can never confidently say anything absolute about myself like "I'll never like durian" (don't mistaken I don't have anything against that fruit--not an ardent fan but neither am I someone that can't stand to be around any). The point is people change. They may vary themselves according to different periods in time, or different circumstances or environments they may be in. That's probably one take home message from the profiling course I attended over the last couple of days. We can never know someone or even ourselves completely. That's probably why that same guy who has always been so friendly as a friend, helpful as a colleague, and affectionate as a husband, can also be someone vicious enough to kill for money, or torture to seek revenge. People can behave differently according to the role they play in their lives. You may know your mum as a mother, but not your mum as a daughter or a lover (yucks, how can anyone even think in that way...ewww....some oedipus complex). But often we impose what we know about someone in one domain to another domain, or assume that that person is just like how you know him or her, all the time.

But anyway, getting to know yourself is important. Life ought to be a journey of self-discovery. As you grow older, you'll start to gain insight into your own make-up as a person--your personality, your likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses,etc. It is particularly important to know how much you don't know rather than think that you know a lot cos' ego and pride are man's worst enemies (and often the cause of their downfall). We act as someone we want to be but not who we really are cos' we all like to be liked or like to be admired. Today, the trainer was going through a list of famous profilers and how their exaggerations and their false or inaccurate statements and testimonies had led to their doom. Those were mistakes committed in moments of folly when they allowed their own desire for fame and prestige to overcome their rational minds and overtake their conscience. It reminded me of my QT this morning because both the devotional material and bible-reading I was doing this morning both talked about desire--who or what is the desire in your life. And of course as Christians, Christ should be our desire, but being human, we could be lured into chasing riches and fame and allowing those desires to consume our righteousness.

Apologies for the kinda negative-sounding post. It's not meant to be something that is all happy and joyful, but rather something that I've been reflecting about. Perhaps something that will make me more aware of myself and others, that would make me a better person and a stronger Christian. God is a great God, He teaches me so many new things everyday and I really want to honour Him with my life. Hopefully I can become more aware of my fallacies so that I can learn to nip them in the bud before they wreck havoc in my life.