Is hard work these days. Maybe it’s always been hard work, but I can’t help but believe that our hyper-connected, image-obsessed culture has raised the game mode from normal to brutal.
There is always someone—or a crowd of someones—eager to make you in their image. To force you into a mold of their design. They have strong opinions about who you are, about who you could be. They’re here to help you become the next big thing. And it may actually sound quite enticing. But if it sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is. If it feels like they’re playing on your insecurities, it’s because they are. If the means seem sketchy and the end seems fake, it’s because they are. If it feels like a trap, it’s because it is.
Other peoples’ visions of you can be fatal. Your true self can wind up dead and buried.
When you feel the dark allure of power and influence and success, follow the example of Jesus: Disappear. Withdraw to a lonely mountainside where you can find your true self in the presence of no one else but God.
