Rethink Your Self: A 5-Day PlanMuestra

Answer a Different Set of Questions 

It’s time to rethink yourself. 

And the only way you will rethink yourself is if, before rushing too quickly to common sense answers, you encounter a different set of questions. The first step in rethinking yourself is when you decide not to accept so easily the most common answers to the most commonly asked questions.

One of the best places to see what passes for common sense is the graduation ceremony. You’re probably familiar with the inspiring words you hear at these events, even though you can’t remember the specifics because, unless they were out of the ordinary, they offered up the usual commonsensical fare about the future:

Follow your heart.

Chase your dreams.

You are enough.

You do you.

No matter what, be true to yourself.

If you were to discern a main point from graduation ceremonies across the United States, you’d come up with something like this: the purpose of life is to discover yourself by looking deep down, and then express yourself to the world, no matter what anyone else—family members, friends, colleagues, previous generations, or religious institutions—might say.

Common sense, right?

If you’re going to rethink yourself, you’ll have to question those slogans and the ideas behind them. You’ll need to stop assuming that the world works the way you’ve always thought it should work, or that your purpose is whatever you’ve assumed it to be, or that your road to happiness must follow the well-tread paths of everyone else.

A warning: rethinking yourself means first re-thinking, and rethinking can be unsettling. It requires you to put things on the table that you’ve never thought to examine. It means probing your inner motivations and the desires of your heart in ways that may bother you and upset your priorities. It means coming face to face with some of your deepest fears and anxieties. It will open your eyes to things you’ve taken for granted while making you doubt things you’ve considered to be basic truths about the world. Rethinking yourself means more than just looking inward to your heart; it requires you to see yourself in relation to the world in a different way.

In the next five days, we’ll look together at one aspect of ourselves and what the ancient wisdom of the Bible has to say as it applies to determining our purpose in life—and how this perspective challenges the common sense wisdom of our day. 

PRAY 

Lord God, please give me a new perspective about determining my purpose in life. Help me challenge the common sense wisdom and choose biblical wisdom instead. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.