You 2.0
“Be the best version of yourself.” The mantra is everywhere these days. It is the message of inspirational movies that feature a main character moving from bad to better. It is the foundational key in self-help books to unlocking success and to “living your best life.”
But does anyone really even know what that means? Is there some kind of standard measurement that can let us know when we’ve reached that point of being our “best”? There seems to be a general sense of what is “good” in society – being kind to others, getting a good education and a good job for example. And then there is this sense of being kind to ourselves, of being true to ourselves. But even that is not clearly defined. What does it mean to be kind? What does it mean to be good, let alone the “best”?
Is being the best version of ourselves simply just a matter of being “better” in some way to what we were before? Therefore, our goodness is not defined by how we compare to others or to societal expectations, but simply in how we compare to our former selves?
If you really stop to think about what appears to be an otherwise nice and innocuous phrase, you’re left with a lot of confusion and a lot of questions. If we’re all on this quest to be the best version of ourselves, we really don’t have a roadmap or clear destination.
And then there is God’s Word. The Word of the One who designed an order to this world and created us for a purpose. The Word that in no uncertain terms tells us that we are not good enough, and never will be. But who wants to hear that when we can set our own standards and have no problem reaching our goals because they are set according to what we think we can reach by our human strength. Then, we can call ourselves “good”, and no one would question us. They would simply applaud, and we can pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.
But that is not reality. You know that phrase: You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig? Yeah, that’s applicable here. (No offense to pigs, by the way. I love pigs).
Just because you say you are good, or better, does not mean you are. Those are your words, not God’s word. You are not God. You are the creature, not the Creator, and you do not have the ability to claim anything but.
You may think that seems harsh. After all, we have grown up being taught to love ourselves, to be true to ourselves, and to value all, especially those on the perceived margins of society. Tolerance has become the highest form of good, because it allows us to feel good, and to be happy. Anyone who does not allow us to feel that way is hateful and should be stopped at all costs.
Even those in church settings have declared that “God wants you to be happy,” implying that God would never do or say anything that would cause you to feel bad in some way about your actions or lifestyle. According to this philosophy, God’s love is not about redirecting someone’s sinful behavior and thus avoiding certain judgment, but rather is pictured as passive and impotent – tolerance is the highest form of “love”. But such teaching is utterly false and leads, in the long run, to great harm and unhappiness.
Accepting everyone for the way they are implies that deep down, everyone is good. But the Bible states that none are good, not one (Romans 3:10-12). And this is actually good news, because it provides a standard for “good” – a standard we could never measure up to by simply living our our own definition of the ever-illusive “happiness” we all desire. This is real peace, because we don’t have to constantly be striving for something that no one has ever reached in their own power (no matter how much they delude themselves into thinking so).
It is also good news because it is accompanied by the announcement that there IS One who is good. One who has reached that ultimate standard. And He did it on our behalf. Jesus Christ, God in flesh, came to earth and lived the perfect, sinless life we never could, and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice that we could never be to make a way for all of us to enter the holy presence of God. This compassionate, gracious provision, if we take hold of it and thus are “in Christ”, makes us truly “good”.
No more need to find the 2.0 version of yourself. You are not some sort of better person by your own effort. You are a completely new creation made by God. You are transformed, filled with the Holy Spirit.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
This new life is marked by a new orientation toward God, a desiring and enabling to live according to His good design that brings deep and abiding joy that is ultimately rooted not in this temporary world and our bodies that face decay, but in a spirit that anticipates and is bound for a beautiful eternity where one day all things will be made new!
Therefore, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).
The best version of ourselves is the one that God makes, and requires only our trust and faith in Him to do it.