I’m a grown man, I thought. I do not know how many years of life are before me. I cannot wait anymore. When I was going to school, I was preoccupied with good grades or getting cute girls to like me. As the years went by, I became preoccupied with work and my circumstances because I thought they would make me feel alive. I can’t wait anymore to be that man, I thought.

I realized this then, and I know it now: I want that life more than I want anything else. Not because I think I’m supposed to, not because it says somewhere that you should. I want it.

There is a me I want to be.

Life is not about any particular achievement or experience. The most important task of your life is not what you do, but who you become.

There is a me you want to be.

Ironically, becoming this person will never happen if my primary focus is on me, just as no one becomes happy if their main goal is to be happy. God made you to flourish, but flourishing never happens by looking out for “number one.” It is tied to a grander and nobler vision. The world badly needs wise and flourishing human beings, and we are called to bring God’s wisdom and glory to the world. The truth is, those who flourish always bring blessing to others — and they can do so in the most unexpected and humble circumstances.

John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God’s Best Version of You (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 12–13.

---

If you would like to explore this new study, it is available on Amazon, as well as part of Good Questions Have Groups Talking