I mentioned in a previous post how we limit our minds in order to worship idols. An “idol” is any created thing to which we give obedience in preference to God. One such created thing we often obey is a self-image that is at odds with the person God created us to be.
If I am straining to be someone I am not, then I do need to limit my mind. There are potentially vast fields of aspiration, adventure, or fruitfulness that ought to be part of the person I think I am—if only I really was that person. I dare not try to enter these fields that I can’t really reach, for fear of revealing that the self-image I have been harboring for years is not true.
Then there are the vast potential fields of aspiration, adventure, and fruitfulness that are a natural part of my joy. I fail to discover these places because I am too busy trying to remain within the bounds of my false self-image.
As a result, I am trapped—forced to make my home in the small overlap between the self I think I am and the self I am actually able to be. As the drawing suggests, this can be a tight space indeed—more confining than the complete self I was created to have and to explore.
Why did I adopt this false image of myself? I don’t necessarily know. The origin of the idol is no doubt found in some previous era of my life, when I accepted someone else’s opinion about the person I could give myself permission to be.
It doesn’t matter. The task now is to turn away.
Jesus said, according to Matthew 16:24, that we are to deny ourselves before following him. This sounds so harsh. It sounds a little like suicide. But in fact it is simply the necessary precondition for getting free. Of course these selves have to be denied! When we come to Jesus, the only selves we bring at first are the false ones that we have grown accustomed to lugging along.
The promise of Jesus is life fully realized. Along the way of seeking God, we also search out the full extent of the person each of us was uniquely created to be. We give ourselves to Jesus—these cumbersome and ill-fitting things that we think of as “selves”—and he gives us our real selves right back in return.
If I am straining to be someone I am not, then I do need to limit my mind. There are potentially vast fields of aspiration, adventure, or fruitfulness that ought to be part of the person I think I am—if only I really was that person. I dare not try to enter these fields that I can’t really reach, for fear of revealing that the self-image I have been harboring for years is not true.
Then there are the vast potential fields of aspiration, adventure, and fruitfulness that are a natural part of my joy. I fail to discover these places because I am too busy trying to remain within the bounds of my false self-image.
As a result, I am trapped—forced to make my home in the small overlap between the self I think I am and the self I am actually able to be. As the drawing suggests, this can be a tight space indeed—more confining than the complete self I was created to have and to explore.
Why did I adopt this false image of myself? I don’t necessarily know. The origin of the idol is no doubt found in some previous era of my life, when I accepted someone else’s opinion about the person I could give myself permission to be.
It doesn’t matter. The task now is to turn away.
Jesus said, according to Matthew 16:24, that we are to deny ourselves before following him. This sounds so harsh. It sounds a little like suicide. But in fact it is simply the necessary precondition for getting free. Of course these selves have to be denied! When we come to Jesus, the only selves we bring at first are the false ones that we have grown accustomed to lugging along.
The promise of Jesus is life fully realized. Along the way of seeking God, we also search out the full extent of the person each of us was uniquely created to be. We give ourselves to Jesus—these cumbersome and ill-fitting things that we think of as “selves”—and he gives us our real selves right back in return.
