“You Do You” Is Killing Us

BE AWARE OF AND DON’T BELIEVE THE MYTH

Came upon this in my reading the other day:

Powerful forces have a vested interest in our believing the myth (and it is a myth) that we are following no one at all. Many of the cultural liturgies that indoctrinate us daily — "Be true to yourself," "You do you," "Speak your truth" — can be traced back to sources with a nefarious agenda.

If "they" (whether multinational corporations, politicians, anti-democratic government agents, marketing departments, influencers who just want more followers, etc., etc.) can make us believe that each person is a blank slate, just following the inner compass of our "authentic self" in an upward march to happiness, then they can keep us blind to all the ways we've been "discipled" — formed and manipulated — by their desires.

I have seen this toxic myth in operation all too often as a pastor. It not only destroys people who are in its grip, but it often transforms them into a kind of “hand grenade” going off in their relational circle, casting shrapnel into and wounding those around them.

Jesus offers a counter-culture in his kingdom, one that brings life:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.

For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life?

For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each according to what he has done.

(Matthew 16:24-27, Christian Standard Bible)

“You do you”?

Really!?

Enough already.

Let’s all of us lay down our lives, deny the “you,” and follow Jesus.