I think we do a fairly good job of hiding ourselves from ourselves. Recently I took up a challenge issued by A.W. Tozer designed to help people discover what they might not otherwise know about themselves.
How would you respond to each of Tozer’s “Rules for Self-Discovery”?
1. What we want most
2. What we think about most
3. How we use our money
4. What we do with our leisure time
5. The company we enjoy
6. Who and what we admire
7. What we laugh at
When I sat long and pondered each area, my answers didn’t surprise me too much. Except #2: What I think about most.
It brought to mind a recent Bible study on the topic of anxiety. I almost didn’t sign up because I don’t consider myself to be an anxious person.
But in the course of the seven-week study, I learned there are a few things I worry about—family members, the unknown, book publishing/marketing. What if my book gets published and no one buys it?
These worries occupy too much of my thought life.
(On the brighter side, my thoughts are also consumed with the man I married and how we can spend our remaining days walking out the purposes God has engraved on our hearts.)
There was another category on Tozer’s list that gave me pause for thought: #6: Who and what we admire.
After much thought, I wrote, “I admire people who are quietly and humbly going about doing good without the need to be noticed.” And I want to be more like those people.
This was an interesting assignment for me. I think sometimes we don’t want to know more about ourselves. We don’t want to conduct introspective exercises because we’re afraid to find out how self-centered we really are (speaking for myself).
But how else can we practice being the man or woman we want to be until we know who we are now?
This thought from the Apostle Paul written to the believers in ancient Colossae:
Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. — Colossians 3:10
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