Day 3: You Do You
Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
In the mid 2010s a new phrase popped onto the scene among millennials and gen Z youth. You do You. It’s the simple yet radical idea of following your heart thrown into a casually cool slogan. It’s casual, al- most benign and calm, yet the phrase shows how easily deceived we are. Let’s look at this message with the ROAR method.
Recognize the Message
The message You do You is in essence saying do what you think is best and right for you. Don’t worry about what people think, just follow what you desire. It’s reminiscent of the Disney movie Moana where she is told to follow her own desire to leave her island that she is supposed to give leadership to. It works out for her, but Disneyland is different from our own lives. What happens when we follow our heart?
Offer Discernment (affirm the good and reject the bad)
The good news is that that every human being has some moral inclination. Romans 2:14-15 tells us that even though we live in a broken world, we have a conscience given to us by God that helps us know right from wrong. One can run into a non-Christian who cares deeply for victims of sexual assault, who helps an elderly person accross the street, or has a healthy relationship with their family.
But the Bible makes clear that even though we have a conscience, we are easily deceived (Jeremiah 17:9). In fact, God’s Word goes so far to say that our hearts are slaves to sin (Romans 6:16), that this evil rules and reigns over the heart. Imagine your sick heart playing a chess game with you. You might fight against it, but every time you end up losing.
When someone says “You do You” what one is saying in essence is to do what your heart wants to do. But our hearts have led us toward great evils: lust, greed, malice, slander, lies, sexual perversion, anger, wrath, filthy language, murder, and more. We see these evils play out in our life, our families lives, and our kids’ lives. So what do we do?
Argue for a Healthier Approach
It turns out that our hearts are too sick, too sin-diseased to get us out of this predicament. Someone had to come for us. Jesus came as the only one with a pure, clean heart. He rejected a selfish You do You. Instead He said, I’ll save you. He gave His life to clean ours.
And now, we as God’s people are to follow His way. We don’t follow our heart. We give our heart to God and take part in His mission to save the hurting world around us. Instead of You do You, the mentality is WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?). It is no longer about us. It’s all about Him.
Reinforce through Prayer
Heavenly Father, stop us from living in a way that puts our desires and needs above You or others. Let us not be deceived, but live as You want us to live. Help us lay down our desires and align them to Your desires. In Jesus’ name, Amen
