For most of my life, I’ve heard people say we should be authentic and be our true selves. This sounds like good advice, but it’s the worst advice a follower of Jesus could ever follow. To be true to yourself stands in stark contrast to how we are called to live. It is prideful, putting our feelings and preferences ahead of God’s. The advice isn’t far removed from the way the serpent tempted Eve.
He convinced her there was a better way than the one prescribed by God. The devil deceived Eve into believing she could be more than she was. It was the desire to be something more, something she believed to be truer to who she was that she shared with Adam. The rest is the unfortunate history of the fall of man and the source of all our problems today.