Socrates once famously said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” While this sounds rather dramatic, I think Socrates is making the point that an unexamined life lacks direction, purpose and meaning. It’s like wandering aimlessly through life.
None of us intentionally set out to live aimlessly. In fact, many of us have plans and goals for our life. But then as we all know life happens. We go to school, start a career, raise a family, and before long we look up and wonder where the time has gone. On top of this, we all encounter various challenges throughout life, from health concerns, relationship discord, financial stress, etc. It’s easy to slip into an unexamined life. If anything, the sheer pace of life almost invites it!
But Jesus says, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it” (Mt. 16:24-25). The question, though, is, how do we give up our own way if we’re unaware of what we’re actually giving up?
Augustine, a famous theologian in 500 AD, asks the question, “How can you draw close to God when you are far from your own self?” A.W. Tozer, also aware of this challenge, says it this way, “An unexamined Christian lies like an unattended garden. Let your garden go unattended for a few months, and you will not have roses and tomatoes but weeds.”
The weeds in our life can take on many forms, like… suppressing our unprocessed hurt, numbing our guilt and shame, striving for the wrong things, endlessly distracting ourselves, believing we’re unlovable by God and others, etc. The list could go on and on. My point is that we all have things in our life that, if left unattended, will keep us from living into a deeper friendship with Jesus and experiencing the fruit of his love in our life.
In self-examination we’re honest before God. We put down our masks and stop pretending to be someone we’re not. We invite the Spirit to search us and know us. As we come to know ourselves, we will ultimately come to know God.
So, an examined life is worth living, because it awakens us to God’s presence with us, which gives us meaning, purpose, and direction.
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