I have an interesting relationship with myself. There is a very real part of me that does not believe in myself. This part of me believes that I am next to useless and constantly tells me that I am not really very good at anything.
And then there is another part. A voice that the other part tries to drown out. This voice tells me what is true. What the reality is. This voice tells me who I really am in light of what Christ has done for me, and who I am now in Him.
The first part hates this part. It yells as loud as it can to influence me. To get me to believe the lies and to get me to ignore the other voice. Many times it succeeds. The first part makes me wants me to believe it. It almost feels unnatural to believe otherwise.
The comforting part though is that even though that part may succeed, I just need to believe the second part. Listen to what the second voice is saying and recognize who I am in truth. This is harder than it sounds. It is a constant war against the flesh in order to believe who God has called me (and us) to be and to follow Him.
When we recognize who we are in Christ, then we can truly do great things. Not necessarily be “great” as the world defines it, but accomplish great things for God. Things that we could only do with the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through us.
I want to do great things. The first step in that is silencing the part of me that thinks I can’t.
I’m serious about this.
I have a similar struggle and I consistently find myself having to cling to Ephesians 2:10. “Workmanship” isn’t typical language in this day and age (not for me at least). But the root word can accurately be translated “masterpiece,” which is a little more helpful. I have to remind myself that to deny that I, as a Christ-follower, was uniquely created by God as a masterpiece useful for His kingdom purposes, is to call God a liar if I believe His word is Truth.
Being that God gets the glory as the Creator of the masterpiece is easier to wrap my mind around than thinking that I have something to offer by my own power.
That’s what helps me.
Dichotomies are everywhere. Think good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, heaven vs. hell, democracy vs dictatorship, left vs. right, democrat vs republican. Dr. Clare W. Graves suggests that this absolute separation (‘Absolutistic’) style of thinking is part of the blue value meme. You can read more about his theory of spiral dynamics here: http://www.spiraldynamics.org/aboutsd_overview.htm One criticism of this theory is that it’s arrogant to suggest there is a hierarchy of value memes.
I personally try to steer clear of the dichotomy style of thinking. For example, if I want to discuss politics with a friend it is very difficult to learn something if the discussion is framed around the classic left/right or democrat/republican dichotomy. The discussion tends to be much more helpful if we focus on the issues, causes, and effects (Graves would consider this a yellow meme approach – systemic).
One note: the overview chart in the spiral dynamics link above is insufficient in explaining the value memes. The chart is too simplified and you really need to read a few paragraphs on each meme to understand the differences.