Being Your Authentic Self
Romans 12:2 Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.
The mantra of this age seems to be … be your authentic self! Do what comes naturally. Be who you feel you really are. Which very much sets up the culture wars between so-called conservatives and liberals. What do you make of all that?
Nineteenth Century American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson put it like this: “To be yourself in a world that’s constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
That’s great, up to a point. It certainly works if “being yourself” is about, say, becoming a musician rather than the engineer your parents wanted you to be. But what if doing what comes naturally to you is something less than good? Something more wrong than right? Something immoral? Something evil?
But where do you draw that line between good and evil, right and wrong, moral and immoral? That’s the very question that lies at the heart of our so-called culture wars.
So where do you draw that line – not in theory, but for yourself, personally, in how you’re going to live out the rest of your life?
Romans 12:2 Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity. (JBP)
From where God sits, authenticity isn’t about conforming to the world’s standards by allowing ourselves to be squeezed into moulds in which we were never meant to fit, but about being transformed by His truth and living out our God-given purpose with integrity and faith.
That’s His Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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