Self-awareness is an important component of a well-lived life. Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Wise words. Why do you think he said this? Well, I can only tell you what I think he meant by that statement. The thing that stands out to me is how we can easily get in a routine with activities in our lives and not even know or understand why we’re doing them. We can find out that, when examined, we learn there might be some activities in our daily lives that aren’t really that necessary.
That’s just one component to this statement. The great thing about it is that it encompasses many aspects of our lives. The reason I think this is important is that self-awareness is essential to consciousness. So, I would say that if we’re not self-aware we’re not fully conscious. It’s like going through life half-asleep. I would also say that an examined life is much more fulfilling. For in that case, we are not only aware of what we’re doing but why we’re doing it. Life can certainly be fun without examining it, but it’s not going to have much meaning. It would be like living your life on candy and ice cream. You need the steak and potatoes, maybe some greens, for a sustaining and meaningful life.
I would also add a disclaimer to Socrates’ statement. I would caution against the other extreme as well and say that the over-examined life is not worth living either. This is definitely the end of the spectrum where I would reside. The danger here is that you spend so much time thinking about the meaning of life that you neglect the living of it. So, obviously there’s a balance here. I think Socrates was just trying to compensate for the direction or tendencies of most people. And as a general rule, we tend to lean towards the unexamined life.
We can easily find when we look that there are some frivolous items in our lives. I guess a good test to see if something passes the examination is to ask ourselves if this thing will matter after we’ve left this earth. Of course not all our time is spent on strictly meaningful things. We would need some frivolity just to keep our sanity and also our enjoyment of life. We just would not be living for those things. Watching a football game is not going to have any eternal meaning for us. But we do it as a way to relax and unwind from the meaningful things.
I guess the important thing is for us to spend a little time thinking about our lives and being intentional. Making adjustments and changes in our lives when and where needed is a good thing. We can make sure that we’re not only doing the right things, but doing the right things for the right reasons.
I guess when I was talking about examining the things we do to see if they have eternal significance, this verse would apply: 2 Corinthians 4:18 “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal.” The things of this world can be very distracting from what’s really important. We don’t really know the value or weight of things in our lives until we examine them in the light of eternity. This verse shows for us that the eternal things in life are the things we don’t see. The things we do see are the temporary things. It’s the temporary things, however, that often end up distracting us from the eternal. We can easily get caught up in the day to day and end up wondering if we’re just spinning our wheels.
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How do we know when we’re truly and properly examining our lives? Well, when we are examining it according to God’s word. The Bible describes itself as being like a mirror. In James 1:23 it says, “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” We can get a good examination of our lives when we look at what God has written to us in his word. We can compare our lives to what the Word says. So, if you think of it this way: our lives are like the test we’re taking, but God’s word is like the answer key. You remember in school the teacher would always have the answer key. Usually, after the test was over, the teacher would let you compare your test to the answer key. So, at the end of the day, we can sit down and compare our lives with the answer key. We can go through the entire day and see if we got the answers right when we sit down with His word. We may find out we got that one right, and that one right, but oh, I got that one wrong, I guess.
Psalms 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if [there be any] wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Here the Psalmist declares his need to for God to search his heart. So, we not only examine our hearts in light of God’s word, but we can let God examine our hearts. This is what we’re often doing when we’re in prayer. We’re letting God speak to us. Many times he will speak to us about our hearts and minds. He will show us something that’s not right, some attitude that needs to change, someone we need to forgive. And the purpose of all this is to root out any wicked ways in us, to ‘lead us in the way everlasting’. So, yeah, self-examination—a good thing.
2 Corinthians 4:18 “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal.”
James 1:23 it says, “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”
Psalms 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if [there be any] wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”