Have you ever noticed evaluating yourself takes on one of two possibilities?
One, you are extra hard on yourself. Harder than anyone would be. Critical, even downgrading yourself with words which shouldn’t be uttered (like stupid, idiot, etc).
Two, you are extra lean on yourself. While you might be hard on someone else-some might call it hyper-critical- you allow yourself all sorts of freedom.
There is also a third evaluation process: allowing someone else to do a true evaluation. We might call that accountability.
Assessment is good. A business should does it. A church should do it. So should an individual. Each year an athlete will take an assessment of his strengths and weaknesses. So should followers of Christ.
When I was in high school I learned each person was basically made up of four “sections”: physical, mental, social and spiritual. As I get older i evaluate myself differently than I used to. I think I am much more honest than I was. Age tells me I am not as strong as I once was. My mental ability was always called into question 🙂 but I have noticed the ability to memorize is not as easy as it once was. Socially, I am still an extrovert but I also find quiet evenings at home a blessing. And spiritually, while I am growing-and want to continue doing so-it still takes extra time to do so. I still can’t lay my head on my Bible and learn by osmosis. (I wish…)
Bobby’s point is a continuation of my thoughts from the last post about his book. “When I am weak, then I am strong.” God uses vessels of weakness to confound the wise.
Rumor has it I am just a crackpot. Oops I mean, cracked pot. 🙂
When I began teaching at the university I was advised to film myself in front of the class and then sit back and critique my approach. I never followed through on this, but it kind of made me think that this is similar to what athletes do when they look at game film.
it is Daniel. They are attempting to evaluate themselves and find flaws or what they did well.
Glad you explained the cracked pot…what a good thing to be too. It’s the cracks that allow the light of Jesus to shine through. When we hare our guard up, no light can get out. Good post Bill. I am still in the first chapter of his book…it’s a good one, think I am going to send it to my son in law. Blessings.
Thanks Betty. Glad to hear you are reading it and plan to pass it along.
Learning by osmosis, we know it doesn’t happen but how often do we live like it does!
Personal evaluations can be unpleasant and I tend to avoid them, it’s the same reason why I often avoid the bathroom scale!
You are right Caleb. It can be unpleasant. That is one reason it is so hard to do it ourselves.
It’s pretty sad when we can’t give ourself an honest evaluation. Too often we have a completely warped view of ourselves.
And you hit the nail on the head larry. We have a completely warped view of ourselves.
Wise people do their homework. Weak people don’t do their homework. Why would God want to confound people that do their homework. That makes about as much sense as loving your enemy.
Not sure I understand your thought Jeff.
you say… God uses vessels of weakness to confound the wise.
I am curious as to why you think God wants to confound the wise?
The context of the statement is in I Corinthians. They thought of themselves as super intelligent people compared to others. But when it came to God, they were clueless. They tried to rationalize everything. It is those who are willing to humble themselves and bi like a child who will “see” God.
Why is it so hard for us to be completely honest with ourselves? I know it’s difficult for me, so maybe you’re right about an outside party doing the assessment.
Blessings, Bill!
Why? i think because we don’t want to admit we are not who we think we are maybe?
You hit it on the head with your paragraph about being extra hard on ourselves complete with self-denigration. You could put my picture next to those words as an example. I am WAY harder on myself than I am on others.
That’s probably the same root cause as my inability to forgive myself yet I forgive other people pretty easily.
I’m coming to think that this tendency is maybe my version of the apostle Paul’s thorn …
I went through a stage of that also David. Only when I realized how much grace I NEEDED did I see I needed to forgive myself.
Reading this reminded me of a quote I heard somewhere (how vague is that!). It was something to the effect that “we often judge others by their actions and judge ourselves by our intentions.” Leads to a lot of hurt feelings that way. We have to be willing to evaluate ourselves properly and see others’ perspective, on their actions or ours. Good thoughts! Thank Bill.
Very true Jason. I had heard that quote sometime in the past but it sure applies here. Agree on being willing to evaluate ourselves properly.
You’re right. You either land in one camp or the other. It takes the Light of God in us to see His truth… and sometimes a reminder!
One or the other for sure Floyd. No middle of the road stuff.