Self-Awareness - Mark Cowper-Smith - Audio

The Gathering Place Church - main

Self-awareness is many things, but at the center, it is the knowledge of how my history has made me the person I am today. It is a knowledge of my strengths AND weaknesses, my passion, temperament, dreams, disappointments, and as-yet unhealed brokenness. It is also an understanding of my sin and areas of temptation. Blind spots None of us are perfect, we are works in progress. We have attitudes and actions that cause us to fall far short of God’s plan for our lives. This leads to living and leading in a way that does not make us happy or bless those around us, as it could. We all admit to this truth, but few of us are willing to take the journey toward self-awareness. Our reluctance to examine our lives soberly leads to what we call “blind spots.” Bringing God into the process Clearly, our human nature recoils from self-awareness, yet the Bible counsels us to examine our hearts, motives, attitudes and actions. “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” Romans 12:3 God is calling for honest and accurate thought as we think of ourselves. There is no room for blind spots here. “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.” Psalms 139:23 Here the writer is inviting God into the process of self-awareness. What is noteworthy is that the writer is not limiting the process of discovery to the revealing of sin. He is asking God to reveal even his anxious thoughts. As well, it is worth noting that the writer is not asking God to know his thoughts for God’s sake. God already knows his deepest thoughts. He is asking God to reveal these things to himself. The point is obvious; we cannot fix problems we are not aware of. The first step to every solution is to recognize the problem. Jesus promises us help in the process of self-awareness: “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32 Jesus is referring to Himself when He refers to knowing the truth, but I think He is promising more than just the knowledge of Himself. The freedom He is promising must be more than just the freedom from sin. It must also include freedom from self-deception and the destructive blind spots that thwart our obedience to Him. In another passage, He promises us the help of the Holy Spirit to lead us into “all truth.” “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” John 16:13 Of course, Jesus is telling His disciples that the Holy Spirit will tell them of things to come, but when He uses the term “all the truth” He is not just referring to future events. He is promising that His spirit will tell them everything they need to know to live lives that glorify Him. “All truth” must include the knowledge of what must change in our self-awareness to live lives pleasing to God. Now for the hard part… Most of the time God reveals our blind spots through those around us. Flawed people often tell us about our flaws. Our pride dismisses their comments by saying, “they have more blind spots than I do, so why should I listen to them?!?!” God speaks through people just as often, or more often, than He speaks to us directly. We are called to admonish and correct each other, but we are called to do it “in love”. But just because the person bringing the truth does it poorly, is not an excuse for rejecting it. Face it, when we are being corrected the part of ourselves that hates it the most is our pride. Your pride is not your friend. Listen to those who bring you criticism, it just might be God who is speaking truth you need to hear.