the two yous
The first step to knowing God's plan for our lives is the
commitment to see ourselves as we really are.
There are two yous--the visibile you and the real you.
The visible you is the you that is known by others. We know
intuitively from our experiences how to act and speak to fit in with
our peer groups. We often act differently from one peer group to the
next.
In high school I was involved in three different peer groups. One was
the jock crowd. When I worked out with the athletes I talked tough and
wouldn't smoke or drink.
Another peer group was the academics. I had been an honor student and
liked these highbrows. We would discuss Darwinian theory and talk
about the importance of science to the future of mankind.
The third group was the hell-raisers. All weekend long I would smoke,
drink beer, cruise the drive-in restaurants, and look for girls.
Frankly, I was nervous wreck around campus. When I walked the halls
with one peer group, my eyes constantly darted around. I feared
seeing a friend from a different peer group--then I would be exposed
as an impostor!
Even though I portrayed three different people at school, a fourth Pat
Morley showed up at home every day after school. I was a walking
identity crisis!
The visible you is the known you. It is never the real you.
We have learned to speak and act in ways that allow us to cope with
our world and peacefully coexist. We work hard to project a certain
image of ourselves to others.
The real you is the you that is known by God. We are who we
are in our minds first, before we speak or act. Our speech and
actions are the results of our thinking. Scripture tells us, "The
heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can
understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). To protect our self-image we kid,
trick, and fool ourselves into believing the visible you is
somehow real. To see ourselves as we really are, we must
acknowledge our inability to do so without God's help.
The mind is where the battle takes place. It's the battle between the
majority secular life view and the minority Christian life view.
Ephesians 6:12 describes this battle for the mind: "For our struggle
is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Because we don't take this invisible war seriously, many of us are
losing the battle for our minds. But we can win them back by
committing ourselves to self-examination through the studying of
Scriptures. You can know the real you, the you that is known by our
God.
Patrick Morley
author, business leader, speaker
© Patrick Morley
|