Why Fr. Lawton says the ''journey to be oneself'' seems the riskiest of all journeys - Admission/Application Essay Example

A few days later after Fr. Lawton delivered this speech; he retired as president of LMU. I believe his speech contained many of his perspectives towards life whom he finds worth sharing to students like me. As a normal young person, I am beset with some insecurities concerning my future such as what would happen as soon as I start pursuing my college study. Questions about what career path should I take and a host of other worldly concerns affects me from time to time. Sometimes, even petty things such as what clothes should I wear to do bother me too.

However, the answer to Fr. Lawton’s question has nothing to do with anything material or worldly at all. Young people like me must understand that the best way to resolve deep insecurity issues is to fully embrace ourselves. God is calling us to fully embrace ourselves. This means dealing with our personal strengths and weaknesses by objectively identifying them. For example, if I know that God has given me certain talents such as playing the guitar, then I could capitalize on that by sharing my talent to other people.

I should not keep the talent to myself but use it well because it is a gift. This part of embracing ourselves is the feel good side because we are proud of what God has given us. How about the weaknesses that we have inside? If I want to fully embrace myself, then I would have to identify it and later resort to forgiveness. The first step would be determine what my weaknesses are. This does not just pertains to inability to do something but more of personal character. If I easily get upset and emotional, I must learn how to overcome such attitude because according to 2 Tim.

1:7 “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline (NIV). As Christians, we must learn how to overcome ourselves through God’s grace. Once we have mastered ourselves, it is easier to manage other aspects of our life. Having said that, we must also have the capacity to forgive ourselves to fully embrace it. We should learn to be kind to ourselves because we are also humans who commit mistakes from time to time. But if we truly believe that God can help us become a new person, then we can prevail and overcome difficulties.

Take the case of Fr. Lawton, I could just imagine how hard it must be for him to his duties after his back surgery. He persevered and waited for the right time to retire gracefully. God gave us many blessings – the family who loves us, the potentials of the future, the talents and skill. All of these can be used for God’s glory. We must learn how to appreciate what God has given us. A common problem nowadays is that young people only see what they do not have. Sadly, they associate material possessions with self-esteem.

I beg to be different because I was raised by my parents to have a thankful heart. This gives me strength to persevere no matter how difficult circumstances may be. I believe that this thankful attitude helps a lot in preventing me from getting hooked on vices such as substance abuse, which is prevalent among young people nowadays. The road to being truthful to ourselves is risky because we would definitely find something unpleasant along the way. Not just about ourselves but about other people around us too that may be bad and ugly.

For this reason, our heart must be ready and steadfast to withstand the journey of self-discovery. Blaming other people and ourselves for our past hurt would not help us. Instead, we should move on because there is nothing else we can change in the past. There are only lessons that must effect changes in behavior in our present lives. M. Scott Peck, a well-known psychiatrist said that “The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece. The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning.

The experience of spiritual power is basically a joyful one”. As we embrace ourselves, we surrender to God our weaknesses and vulnerabilities in prayer. We accept that we cannot control everything in this life, sometimes, even ourselves. But if we strive to be faithful to ourselves every day, we can reduce our deep insecurities. A life anchored in Christ is the most secure life.