How many things resound in our culture today, and we take them into stride with the t-shirts we wear and the movements we advocate but maybe, just maybe, we don’t think enough about what they mean or if they really are truth? We need to look at them in the light of God’s truth.
Examine everything, hold firmly to that which is good-1Thes.5:21
I think “be true to yourself” can be dangerously close to the “do what makes you happy” culture predominant in our society today. Some people think “be true to yourself” means you should freely say what you think or feel, with no regard for what others think or feel, and thus the great venting on social media. Some think it means be who you want to be, define yourself as you like, and there is no wrong answer. Some think it means you don’t need to change a thing, and you should just distance yourself from anyone that tells you different.
There is a basic problem with this kind of thinking and the conclusions drawn. You can’t buy an oven and take it home and decide you want it to be a refrigerator, it won’t work. Their functions are fundamentally opposite. You can’t buy a washing machine and take it home and decide you want it to be a dish washer, because although they have a similar function in washing, one is not set up to do that of the other. Instead of clean, your dishes will end up in pieces, kind of like what happens to a lot of lives when people try to do things on their own. It is the inventor that decides the purpose of his creation, and then he designs and equips it accordingly.
No one came into this world by self will, nor decided where they would be born or how their family would be, rather these things were determined by the Creator, who breathes life into human seed and then forms each into a wonderfully unique person. The psalmist says it beautifully in Psalm 139. You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
So how can you really be true to self? Many think the best way is “just follow your heart”, but the problem is that our heart is very easily deceived by appearances and emotions and can get us into a lot of trouble. The only way is to know who you were made to be. You were made to know your Creator in a personal relationship in which God himself adopts you as his son or daughter, to care for you always and for eternity (Juan 1:12; Ro.8:15) You were made to love and live in a big way. You were made to rule over circumstances not be trampled under by them (Ro. 8:31,37). You were made to pick yourself up and keep going forward, even though you fall or are knocked down over and over (Pr.24:26; Ps.37:23-24; 2 Co.12:9). You were made to discover your God-given gifts and talents, develop them and use them for the glory of God and the good of others (Eph.4:7; 1 Peter 4:10). You were made to be blessed by God and be a blessing to others.
I am a promise to be everything God wants me to be.
There is a little song that I learned years ago at vacation Bible school that I think says it pretty well. I am a promise, I am a possibility. I am a great big bundle of potentiality. And I am learning to hear God’s voice, and I am tryin’ to make the right choice. I am a promise to be everything God wants me to be. One of the greatest challenges we have in this life is to find our meaning and purpose. One saying that echoes in my mind from TV commercials when I was growing up and to this day is “Be all you can be”. It is a challenge put out to not settle down and not settle for less than being the best, which you can achieve in a certain area of life service. You may never have enlisted, neither have I, but that certainly doesn’t stop you from being all you can be.
Can you decide? Some think it is all in the genes, and you can’t get around it. Some say you are just the sum of your experiences, but I believe more precisely, I am the sum of my responses to my experiences both good and bad. Yes, I have DNA from my mom and dad, their mom and dad, and the ancestors before them, but now I also have divine DNA that surpasses all of the natural. So, if your background would seem to say, it’s only natural for your life to be a disaster, when you give your life to Christ, He paints a different picture for your future (Jer. 29:11; 2 Co.5:17). He can heal you from the inside out, give you grace to forgive and power to overcome everything that wants to drag you down and hold you back.
It’s time to be true to truth, God’s truth. You don’t have to guess or play hit and miss. God’s word says, Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you (James 4:8). If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him (1:5). So draw near, ask, trust and be much more than you could be on your own, because God will be with you wherever you go (Josh.1:9)
