Communal Self-knowledge

To know ourselves as we are and should be we need self-reflection, human input, and God's truth.

Knowing oneself is a messy endeavor that cannot and must not be done alone. We just don't know enough to do this ourselves. At least three inputs are needed.

(1) Self-knowledge is a result of self-reflection, for self is the subject under consideration. This process, though, is not navel-gazing, for it must include at least two other voices: others and God.

(2) The perspectives of those humans who know us--whether positively or negatively--provide earthly information to which the self has no access apart from external inputs. The way others see us, while in no way the final and a total view, is important, for much about the self is hidden by the self's filters.

(3) Most crucially, God's perspective is needed. He alone knows us fully and completely, both as we are and how he designed us to be. His input places individual specificity into the context of human generality and divine design.

Launch Pads

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