"For me to a saint means to be myself. Therefore, the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self...God leaves us free to be whatever we like. We can be ourselves or not, as we please. But the problem is this: since God alone possess the secret of my identity, He alone can make me who I am. or rather, He alone can make me who I will be when I at last fully begin to be. The seeds that are planted in my liberty at every moment, by God's will, are seeds of my own sanctity." Thomas Merton

 God created me to be with him forever in glory. But he gave me a free will to choose whether to be with him or not. We can become our true self or be lured by our false self. To become our true self, I seek my identity in God. To run after the false self is to run after illusions and shadows that lead me away from God. Then when I die, God will reveal to us the self he willed us to be. Will our final reality match that image? If it does then we have found our identity in God and will be with him eternally. If not, we then will live eternally in the emptiness of the  darkness and illusions of the false self away from God. In the words of the Old Testament: "Choose life or choose death."