As we come to the end of the week, I found another fortune cookie quote for pondering.
“Be the best version of yourself.” (Matthew McConaughey)
It sounds like excellent advice. It sounds like the sort of thing you might hear in a sermon … or at least see printed on a church retreat mug.
When you think about the quote’s meaning, what comes to mind? Work on yourself. Improve yourself. Become the person you’re capable of being. Set high standards for yourself, and do your best to meet them.
Who could object to that?
There is, after all, something deeply Christian about growth. The New Testament speaks often about transformation—about becoming mature in Christ, about being shaped into the likeness of Jesus. We are supposed to be working to be better.
But the path to get there is a little surprising.
The modern slogan assumes that the project to better myself is all about me. It begins with my potential, and comes about through my discipline and my determination to become the best possible version of myself. It puts a lot of pressure on us to do it all ourselves.
The Gospel sets our beginning somewhere differently. Jesus once said, “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25). We then become better versions of ourselves by focusing less on ourselves and loving others more. The biblical version of this slogan tells us we become the best version of ourselves when we focus less on ourselves and more on God and others.
Lent nudges us toward a strange truth: the goal of the Christian life is not a shinier version of ourselves. It is a life gradually re-centered around Christ rather than our own ambitions. And oddly enough, that is where the real transformation happens.
When we stop obsessing over improving ourselves, and instead begin following Jesus—serving, forgiving, trusting, loving—something unexpected unfolds. We start becoming the people we were actually meant to be.
Not the “best version” we carefully constructed, but the best version God had in mind all along. Which is far better than any fortune cookie slogan.
Prayer: Jesus, free me from the pressure to perfect myself. Teach me instead to follow you—to trust you, to serve others, and to walk in your grace. Shape my life into what you desire, and make me more like you each day. Amen.
