Who are we, really? One may hear, from many fronts of opinion, that one of life's main goals is to find out who oneself really is.
Find yourself. Live your dream. Become more fully yourself (or rather, allow yourself to be yourself). Don't let others dictate who you are.
This sounds pretty good. I mean, honestly, who wouldn't be content with finding a good dream for their life, and living in a way to fulfill that dream?
Who wouldn't want to have the freedom to become who they naturally are, without the constraints of society dictating a plotted, uninteresting life?
We all have that concept of what a successful life for ourselves looks like. We all want to achieve that success. What we do and how we live shapes who we are, and vice-versa. If we can "find ourselves", we can be successful.
Simply stated, I'm trying to describe the mindset of people using themselves as their own measuring stick for life.
With that in mind, I can't help but think that it's not how Jesus lived his life.
"not my will, but yours be done"
or, in the Message
"not what I want, but what You want"
If you aren't familiar with the context, this is the point in history when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, and he was about to be arrested and ultimately crucified. I think this is also one of the only, and if not the only, at least the most striking, times that we see Jesus wanting something other than that which His Father wanted. You always hear how Jesus is the God-Man, but sometimes it seems like he's only God, and no Man. Here, we see his human nature, the desire for survival and comfort. But the only reason we hear about it is because Jesus sheds his own desires, his own will, for the will of the Father.
Now, it seems to me that this type of behavior is at the absolute opposite end of the spectrum from the self-defined nature previously described. If you are going to follow Christ, you have to give up yourself. Lose yourself. Not find yourself. In terms of a biblical perspective on human nature, I can't help but think this was the plan all along. All throughout the Bible, people have to discard their own plans, dreams, even their own self identity, and take up the one that God gives them. A great example of this is Jacob. He wrestles with God (pretty crazy, right?), who gives him a new name (Genesis 32 & Hosea 12). Interestingly, in the Genesis account of the story (which, I believe, Hosea is simply a reference to, but correct me if I'm wrong), Jacob is renamed Israel "because you [Jacob] have striven with God and with men and have prevailed".
The reason this is interesting to me is that God gives him a name that relates to what Jacob has already done. This seems to contradict what I've been saying so far. It seems like God was thinking, "Well, I have to give Jacob a new name, so...let's see, what has he done? He wrestled me, and he's gone up against some other guys...ok!"
Maybe that's what actually happened. But the thing is, Jacob still had to ask. He never would have been named Israel if he hadn't asked to be blessed, the result of which was a new direction in life for him.
So then, a bit of clarification to this concept. It is good to find yourself. But, in order to find yourself, it seems as if you first have to realize that you aren't the one who actually knows yourself best. Jacob had to ask for a new name. Jesus, who was truly God and Man, had to submit to the will of the Father, in order to fulfill the whole purpose for which He came to earth.
Anyway, I'm thinking this is all sounding a bit cliche, and you've probably heard it all before, so I'll stop now that the horse has only been dead for a couple paragraphs. I just think it would be a good idea for us to stop focusing on ourselves and how great, nice, intelligent, or correct we are, or maybe stop focusing on how messed up we are or have been, or will be.
It's good to consider these things, but it is not who we are. Yes, we all get to be a unique little snowflake like we heard in grade school, and no, we shouldn't be a bunch of automatons who just go through the motions of life without meaning.
However, "Christian" literally means "little Christ". So where do we find ourselves? In Jesus. Who are we? We are God's children. In that knowledge, we can live with purpose.
Note: This post doesn't count as the aforepromised (that word set off my spellchecker but I think it exists elsewhere in the English language) post on the topic of purpose.
Although it does relate.
Find yourself. Live your dream. Become more fully yourself (or rather, allow yourself to be yourself). Don't let others dictate who you are.
This sounds pretty good. I mean, honestly, who wouldn't be content with finding a good dream for their life, and living in a way to fulfill that dream?
Who wouldn't want to have the freedom to become who they naturally are, without the constraints of society dictating a plotted, uninteresting life?
We all have that concept of what a successful life for ourselves looks like. We all want to achieve that success. What we do and how we live shapes who we are, and vice-versa. If we can "find ourselves", we can be successful.
Simply stated, I'm trying to describe the mindset of people using themselves as their own measuring stick for life.
With that in mind, I can't help but think that it's not how Jesus lived his life.
"not my will, but yours be done"
or, in the Message
"not what I want, but what You want"
If you aren't familiar with the context, this is the point in history when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, and he was about to be arrested and ultimately crucified. I think this is also one of the only, and if not the only, at least the most striking, times that we see Jesus wanting something other than that which His Father wanted. You always hear how Jesus is the God-Man, but sometimes it seems like he's only God, and no Man. Here, we see his human nature, the desire for survival and comfort. But the only reason we hear about it is because Jesus sheds his own desires, his own will, for the will of the Father.
Now, it seems to me that this type of behavior is at the absolute opposite end of the spectrum from the self-defined nature previously described. If you are going to follow Christ, you have to give up yourself. Lose yourself. Not find yourself. In terms of a biblical perspective on human nature, I can't help but think this was the plan all along. All throughout the Bible, people have to discard their own plans, dreams, even their own self identity, and take up the one that God gives them. A great example of this is Jacob. He wrestles with God (pretty crazy, right?), who gives him a new name (Genesis 32 & Hosea 12). Interestingly, in the Genesis account of the story (which, I believe, Hosea is simply a reference to, but correct me if I'm wrong), Jacob is renamed Israel "because you [Jacob] have striven with God and with men and have prevailed".
The reason this is interesting to me is that God gives him a name that relates to what Jacob has already done. This seems to contradict what I've been saying so far. It seems like God was thinking, "Well, I have to give Jacob a new name, so...let's see, what has he done? He wrestled me, and he's gone up against some other guys...ok!"
Maybe that's what actually happened. But the thing is, Jacob still had to ask. He never would have been named Israel if he hadn't asked to be blessed, the result of which was a new direction in life for him.
So then, a bit of clarification to this concept. It is good to find yourself. But, in order to find yourself, it seems as if you first have to realize that you aren't the one who actually knows yourself best. Jacob had to ask for a new name. Jesus, who was truly God and Man, had to submit to the will of the Father, in order to fulfill the whole purpose for which He came to earth.
Anyway, I'm thinking this is all sounding a bit cliche, and you've probably heard it all before, so I'll stop now that the horse has only been dead for a couple paragraphs. I just think it would be a good idea for us to stop focusing on ourselves and how great, nice, intelligent, or correct we are, or maybe stop focusing on how messed up we are or have been, or will be.
It's good to consider these things, but it is not who we are. Yes, we all get to be a unique little snowflake like we heard in grade school, and no, we shouldn't be a bunch of automatons who just go through the motions of life without meaning.
However, "Christian" literally means "little Christ". So where do we find ourselves? In Jesus. Who are we? We are God's children. In that knowledge, we can live with purpose.
Note: This post doesn't count as the aforepromised (that word set off my spellchecker but I think it exists elsewhere in the English language) post on the topic of purpose.
Although it does relate.
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