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Christian Network

It is said that the unexamined life is not worth living. The opposite is also true. The too much-examined life isn’t worth living either. Self-centeredness has always been a tendency of fallen humanity. In fact it could be said to be the essence of our corporate rebellion against God, for only He is the rightful the center of all things. Our race was created to live for and through Him, not for ourselves. Part of the mutiny of the Fall was the attempted enthronement of the human race over God. We tried to make ourselves the center of the universe and throughout human history have suffered the divine curse that was its result. In unregenerate human beings self-centeredness is as natural, and often as unopposed, as breathing. In Christians it is an inclination of the flesh that must be consciously and consistently fought by the power of the Holy Spirit.

One aspect of this tendency is an obsession with finding out what is wrong inside us. The "therapeutic" culture that has become so prevalent in the Western world in recent years is indicative of a perceived need to find answers by looking within. It is thought that self-examination is the path to uncover the solutions for much of the pain that plagues the human condition. What might be called "the Psychology Boom" is a function of a society that has come to believe that the primary way to find happiness is to somehow change the self through self-examination.

Unfortunately self-examination in and of itself is a dead end. There is much that is wrong within each one of us but to constantly pore over our flaws in an attempt to cast them out is not only futile but also potentially destructive. Depression and, ultimately, despair is the fruit of an overly examined life. When we try to seek deliverance in forever looking at and to ourselves we will forever reap the whirlwind. The answer to our fallen-ness is not to be found in an obsessive examination of the very fallen-ness we seek to restore, but in the One who is our Restoration. It is ultimately in God-centeredness, not self-centeredness, that freedom from the ravages of sin can be found, to the extent that is possible while still living on this side of the Resurrection.

That is not to say that looking inside ourselves is wrong in a comprehensive sense. The issue is who is directing it. The Word of God specifically tells us to sometimes examine ourselves at so the Holy Spirit Himself can use it to reveal something inside us that needs to change. The problem is not necessarily one of self-examination but of its purpose and focus. The right purpose is to become aware of what God wants to do in order to clean out our hearts and replace what needs to be removed with the likeness of Christ in us. The focus is not just on determining the thing that needs to go but also on how we can participate in the process by entrusting it to the sanctifying work of the Spirit. One of the fruits of healthy self-examination, for instance, is a new knowledge of what we need to pray for in regards to our sanctification.

Moreover, there are times when there is the need for human help in a healthy process of Godly self-examination. Some of us have more internal damage than others, both as a result of trauma that was inflicted on us in the past by others and by the sinful ways we dealt with such trauma. As in other aspects of the Christian life we sometimes need "Jesus with flesh on" in the form of fellow believers who, inspired by the Spirit, can help us to see what is wrong and point us to Godly solutions. These are often those brothers and sisters in the Faith who are also our closest friends. If the ravages of trauma and sin are beyond even their ability to understand the Spirit may sometimes direct us to a professional Christian counselor more able to aid us in a deeper, but still appropriate, level of self-examination.

In the end both the unexamined and too much-examined lives are not worth living. What is needful is to find the balance between these two poles through the direction and purposes of the Holy Spirit, both directly and in the person of His human helpers. In such a God-centered balance is true spiritual health.