We’ve become awfully comfortable with the idea that our lives belong entirely to us. As a culture, we are obsessed with self-fulfillment, self-preservation, self-protection, self-discovery, etc etc etc.
In relationships, if we’re inconvenienced, we are taught to protect ourselves and cut ties.
In life, we act as though our time is more valuable than others.
We want to help others, provided it doesn’t require self-sacrifice.
We expect God to answer our prayers according to our timelines.
It’s easy to see that in today’s world, our desires and our very selves have become our highest authority. We are slaves to the MY culture, and whether we realize it or not, we have developed self-idolatry.
Idolization doesn’t always look like lying prostrate before a golden calf. It can be as simple as holding our bodies and appearances to a faulty standard, creating an enviable reputation, or curating a life that looks particularly appealing on social media.
Somewhere within the past twenty years, we have started treating ourselves like the author, the illustrator, and the ultimate authority over our own existence. We make decisions based on trends, secular shifts, and popular opinion.
But there’s something important we’ve forgotten.
“God created mankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
- Genesis 1: 27
The first book of the Bible gives us clear direction: We are not image-makers, but image-bearers. Adam, the first human being to ever be conceived in the mind of God, was formed from dust, and Eve, the first woman ever conceived by the mind of God, was made from Adam’s rib.
Adam didn’t bring himself into existence; he didn’t formulate his own vision of himself and thrust himself into the Garden of Eden to be in full communion with God. Adam’s life began with God; Adam’s identity began with God. And so does ours, not with whatever definition we give ourselves.
Being made in the image of God gives us inherent dignity and worth, and we are imprinted with the Holy Spirit.
Sin entered the world, and we know well the story of our first parents and how they ate from the fruit of the tree God had instructed them not to eat from. And because of the fall, we now live in a world where we spend our lives trying to create our own image of ourselves rather than reflecting the image of our Creator.
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
-Luke 9:23
As Catholics, we know that being a part of God’s Church isn’t about adding Jesus into the lives we are living, but adding our lives into the life God has directed us to walk in. This walk towards eternal life and full unity with God isn’t easy work; it requires full and total surrender, which means dying to ourselves.
It’s throwing up our hands and giving up the crowns of an easily worshippable world. It means recognizing that the desires of our flesh aren’t always aligned with God’s desires. It means giving up relationships of corruption, loosening our grip on material things, and surrendering pride, control, and selfishness.
How often, looking back, have we found ourselves asking God to bless the seeds we were planting rather than trusting Him to tend the garden He has already been cultivating? It’s like God doesn’t have the whole God thing figured out. We obviously haven’t gotten it because all we want to do is choose what grows, when it grows, and how it grows.
And do we ever look around and apologize to God? Lord, I’m sorry I want to plant my own seeds when you were the One who planted the Redwood Trees.
It’s when we give everything we have on this earth to God. Which means body, mind, and soul are all His. We don’t get to approach our bodies as though they’re ours to do with whatever we please. We have to strongly consider the choices we make about permanent bodily modifications, what we put in our bodies, how we approach sexuality, and how we present ourselves to the world.
Are we treating the body that isn’t ours as an instrument for God’s glory and will or as possessions for our own pleasure and devices?
“Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit…. You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
-1 Corinthians 6:19-20
God created no one else like you. He instilled you with gifts, a personality, interests, and a heart that doesn’t match a singular other person on this planet. When we die to ourselves, we aren’t losing our identities; we're discovering our true identity in its fullness. We’re allowing Christ to become the center of our lives and to live according to His word.
I don’t think we necessarily realize how deeply this mindset has worked its way into our lives until we take a step back, both internally and outwardly, and take a look at the lives we’ve built that don’t revolve around Jesus.
We’ve started a cycle of asking: What is best for me? What makes me happiest? What is it that I want to do with this one life that I have given myself?
News flash: Your life isn’t yours, and it never was. You are not the one to thank, nor are you the one to take credit. Because there’s a huge difference between knowing you have worth and believing that all your worth has come from you and you alone.
Being created in God’s image and likeness doesn’t mean you get to replace Him with your own image.
You weren’t made in your Image; you were made in His.
End of discussion.
