Being The Best Version of Myself

Jun 20 2023 - Eric Buresh

I heard this phrase in one form or another three different times in the last two weeks. Each time in a religious setting (not at our church). I’m not sure exactly what the various users of the phrase meant by it, and I’m not making any judgments about their intent, but I will say that several questions come to my mind when someone offers to help me become the “best version of myself.” 

First, do they really know me? In my natural state, I’m not remotely good. I’ve had several decades to get to know myself. Even if I became the very best version of myself, it still would not look very good. Second, do they really know themselves? Even a little honest self-examination reveals that most of what we do when we are operating in our natural state is driven by selfish motives. In our natural state, we are slaves to self-centeredness. Assuming we all suffer from this same basic depravity in our natural state, what exactly is the point, then, to becoming the best version of our natural selves? Seems like putting lipstick on a pig – an exercise in futility. 

Third, how does my effort to become the best version of myself bring glory to Jesus? The sentiment of becoming the best version of myself is exactly what the world preaches. Morality makes me feel good so I do that until I’m convinced that something immoral will make me feel even better so I do that instead. We justify both the moral and immoral actions by saying, “it makes me happy” or “I’m embracing the person that I am.” It’s the world’s game of self-justification that blocks so many people from faith in the first place.   

Fourth, I ask, is being the best version of myself consistent with true Gospel transformation? Rather than becoming the best version of ourselves, aren’t we to totally “put off the old man with his deeds?” (Col. 3:9) When we were raised with Christ (by salvation and symbolized in baptism), the old man died. (3:3) We are not trying to improve that old man anymore. We are instead a totally “new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” (3:10) We are not trying to make a better version of ourselves, we were born anew to reflect Christ as the all in all. (3:11) This is the essence of the Gospel – new birth, new life, new person in Christ. 

Rather than seeking to improve my old self, I desire that old self (and all the sin that goes with him) to be dead and gone. The new man in me desires to be the best image of Jesus that He will make me to be according to His timing and plan. I want Jesus, by His Spirit, to give me a totally new mind seeped in the knowledge of Him. I want to be in present reality what I already am in the eyes of God – a righteous reflection of His Son shining brightly in the world around me. There are many brothers and sisters in my life who help me on this path, and I praise God for them. Their voices point me repeatedly to Jesus and away from myself.   

While I do not know what anyone else might mean by “becoming the best version of myself,” the phrase makes me think about me. And I don’t need any more voices inviting me to fix my eyes on me. The old man that remains in me, while already dead, is still kicking. He has “me” squarely in view without any extra help from the outside.