Know Thyself!

"Know thyself!" declared the ancient Greeks. I truly believe they had it right. In our American culture, we often interpret this to mean  focusing on ourselves and what makes us happy. That is called self-centeredness. Let's not confuse the two. The ancient Greeks interpreted this saying in several ways:

1) "the proverb is applied to those whose boasts exceed what they are."
2)Plato interpreted it as an admonition to those entering a sacred temple to remember and know their place, aka recognize they are frail and human compared to the Greek gods
3) Socrates said, "people make themselves appear ridiculous when they are trying to know obscure things before they know themselves"

Bottom line? You are not all you are cracked up to be. Sound depressing? Not at all. It is a call to humility.

Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

According to this verse, we have a specific job to do. But how can we know what that is without knowing ourselves? It is as Socrates said, we appear ridiculous when we attempt to do things before we fully understand how God hardwired us.

We must acknowledge we are God's handiwork! We are uniquely crafted. In Genesis, the Lord created the whole earth in 6 days. He spoke everything into being except one thing: Man. The Bible says God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and then eventually put him to sleep and used one of his ribs to create Eve. We are physically crafted by the Master Artists and made in His image. And He created us for a purpose, a purpose He already knows!

Know thyself! Learn how God wired you - the strengths, personality, and gifts He gave you. Look at your passions and interests, and then get going. When we know who God is and who we are in Christ we are much more effective and "we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory" (Ephesians 1:12).

What did God uniquely create you to do? I would love to hear from you!