Awareness of God and Self

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates

“Our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves.”T.S. Elliot, poet 

We know that we must pursue knowing God. A Christ-follower's chief aim is to know God (Phil 3:10) and mature in awareness of who He is. But did you know that part of God awareness is your increasing self-awareness and learning to lead out of your uniqueness, reflecting God’s design and image? As is evident in David Benner’s writing, knowing God and knowing oneself are interwoven. He says: 

“People who have never developed a deep personal knowing of God will be limited in the depth of their personal knowing of themselves. Failing to know God, they will be unable to know themselves, as God is the only context in which their being makes sense. Similarly, people who are afraid to look deeply at themselves will of course be equally afraid to look deeply at God. For such persons, ideas about God provide a substitute for direct experience of God. Knowing God and knowing self are therefore interdependent. Neither can proceed very far without the other. Paradoxically, we come to know God best not by looking at God exclusively, but by looking at God and then looking at ourselves--then looking at God, and then again looking at ourselves. This is also the way we best come to know ourselves. Both God and self are mostly fully known in relationship to each other.”

 We need to know God and cooperate with Him in exposing the false self and discovering and living out of our true identity in Christ. Exposing the false lies you and I believe about ourselves is vital to maturing on our faith journey. 

Some of the most important leadership work we do is to help leaders face and name their dark side. We guide leaders to aim to be profoundly self-aware, not simply for self-improvement but to understand how God has shaped them and the lies or issues they’ve taken on that impact their knowing God. Ask God to reveal Himself to you and to help you notice and name false identities you might have taken on or lies you’ve embraced. You can trust His gracious pruning and His beautiful work in creating you as his masterpiece (Eph 2:10).

 Who You Say I Am by Hillsong is one that helps remind me who I am when I struggle.