The danger of losing yourself

"The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc., is bound to be noticed." - Anti-Climacus

The biggest danger is that of losing oneself. I agree entirely. For without yourself, what remains of yourself? Though you continue, you cease.

But a more fundamental question stands unanswered. What - or rather, who - is yourself? This basic question of identity is an antidote to the disease of losing yourself.

The first question in answering who you are - is to ask who you are not. And the answer here is that you are not your own. Contrary to every inclination, every notion of your existence, every testimony of the western world - you are not your own. Ironically, your self is not yours at all. Which gives rise to the second and definitive question.

If you are not your own, then whose are you? And the answer here is elementary. You are God's. You are not your self's. You are God's. He owns you. He has made you. He has designed and created you. You are His craftsmanship. You are therefore magnificent and sculptured.

You only have meaning and purpose in relation to God. Your identity is relative to the Absolute. Sadly to your sense of independence, you only exist because of a nexus to the Absolute.

The danger of losing yourself is that you would sever this join to the Great Absolute and try to make yourself your own. While to the contrary, the more you recognise your connection to the Father of All Mankind, the more you identify and locate yourself. This is what it means to find yourself. It is the countermand to losing yourself.

In simple terms, part of God's work of salvation is that of Liberator. He has come to liberate you from the wickedness that your self is yours. He has come to reveal that you exist not apart from Him, but because of Him, with Him, and in association with Him.

You will lose yourself if you attempt to be Absolute. You will find yourself if you acknowledge that, at best, you are relative to the Absolute. And, as Anti-Climacus says, this is a silent, unnoticed, unheralded process. Pity the man who silently divorces himself from both God and therefore from himself.