You don’t know me.

“You don’t know me.” That’s been my reactive thought and sometimes verbal response when someone says something that strikes real deep. Like most reactive thoughts, it’s not true and misses the point. It’s another aspect of “Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me.” On a surface level, we think others don’t know us and if they did they would understand why we do what we do. The truth is we don’t really know ourselves. Others often know us better. And what we do know of ourselves, we’re not exactly excited to share.  And often others all too well understand why we do what we do.
Do you remember the first time you heard yourself in a recording or saw yourself on a video? Others hear us and observe us every day. We don’t have that privilege. If you’re like me you shy away from mirrors; too much truth. When we do look at ourselves in a mirror; it’s usually in a posed, unnatural, shot. We often have a distorted, self-created view of ourselves, usually based on a long ago version that was better looking, better acting, younger, and smarter than we are now (and, in fact, than we ever really were.)
For most of us, we dread the thought that others might really know us or that we might really know ourselves. We know, but won’t admit, that only God really knows us. That’s one of the reasons we shun time alone with Him. When you’re alone with someone there are only a couple of things worth talking about: you or Him. When you’re alone with God both prospects are scary. We know (deep inside) that to know us like God does or to know Him like He really is , would shatter our self-designed version of the way things are.
But the first step in any plan to improve anything, including ourselves, is an honest evaluation of the way things are. For that reason we should consider, and maybe even seek, the observations of others. Such observations can be helpful, but we must remember they, too, are imperfect. We really need to seek the knowledge of God, the knowledge of who He is and who we are. Only He has a perfect grasp of both of those.
So in the still moments of our lives. Let’s be wise enough to recognize His presence and superior knowledge and courageous enough to hear what He has to say.
Listen and be blessed.
Nick