This is my first (and maybe only) guest post from the brilliant mind of Jean-Thomas Louvier, who just so happens to be my favorite person ever. 🙂 By “guest post,” I mean he wrote it and sent it to me and I asked him if I could post i on here. The artwork is by him as well.
“Know thyself.”
Oh, the famous words of the wise and philosophic Socrates. I’ve heard this phrase etched into everything from professors lectures, motivational speakers rants, to ministers sermons.
It’s very utterance seems to bring some sort of ignition of wisdom. It has become a universal unspoken goal, yet for some reason it never did quite give me that theological goose bumpy feeling, (which if you know me you’re probably saying, “go figure.”)
I’ve never been the one that can easily or poetically describe myself during one of those ice breakers at small groups. I’m the one who states my name, rank, and serial number. I pretty much feel like it’s an awkward interrogation where neither side knows what they’re doing, and believe me I’d rather have an experienced interrogator, less boring!
Anywho, It’s not that I’m cryptic, I’m fairly social after you get to know me, and it’s not that I’m boring, usually Brooke interjects in my passiveness and starts listing my current list of random talents and adventure, and then the conversation takes off from there. The reason I don’t usually list those things off the top of my head, is I’ve never really felt that’s who I am. They are things I do, things I’ve done, and things I know, not really who Jean-Thomas is.
So now you’re probably waiting for me to tell you who Jean-Thomas is.
Honestly… I’m not entirely certain.
Further more, I don’t really care.
To me, trying to understand who I am is like trying to understand the universe.
It’s always growing, our knowledge of it ever-changing, and the resources we find in it continuing to surprise us.
We have so many things that focus on bettering ourselves, so many classes on self-improvement, and way too many books on self-help.
Do you want to know my idea of self-help?
Go help someone else.
You will learn more about your own talents, your dreams, your goals, your purpose, your weaknesses, your strengths.
You will do more for yourself than any class, program, lesson, or book will do for you, every time you help someone else.
I want to discover more about the world around me, I want to know more about the people I meet. I want to know what I can do for them.
Now this may be a shocker for some of you, but I don’t even really worry about trying to discover who I am in God.
I didn’t say I don’t know who I am in God, I said I’m not worried about trying to discover who I am.
1 Chronicles 28:9 says, “Solomon, my son, learn to know thy God intimately. Worship and serve him with all your heart and willing mind… If you seek him you will find him.”
Growing up I never worried about my dad’s plans for me, I was too busy being his son.
I was playing catch, riding horses, going on hikes, and traveling the world. Why? Because I wanted to be just like him. And you know what? It caught on.
Not only did I grow to love the games, hobbies, and projects we did, but because we spent so much time together I grew to share in his passions.
I grew to care for people more than myself, to want to uphold those weaker than me, to fight for those who couldn’t. I learned to love helping people’s dreams become a reality.
If you were to ask my father if he had a plan for me when I was born, he’d probably say it was to watch me grow into the man I am today and the man I’m still becoming.
But I never had to ask him, I just spent time with him, and what he wanted for me just kind of took hold in my life.
Wouldn’t it have been ridiculous if I tried to figure out who I was with my father? I would have wasted so much time trying to discover on my own who I was in my dad. I’m his son, what more is there to it?
That’s how it works with God. We don’t need to seek out his plan for us, we just need to seek out him.
Spend time knowing what kind of God he really truly is. What is his love like? Where is his heart, his passion, what is his vision?
Spend enough time just wanting to discover Him and one day you’ll realize you fell perfectly into where you need to be.
I don’t think I will ever truly know who I am until the day I meet my Savior face to face.
I believe until I breathe my final breath Jean-Thomas will be and ever-changing, adapting, growing, evolving life. When I pass on, you all can figure out who I was and write an epic movie about it. 😉
My life is a story, your life is a story.
Let’s not worry about writing our endings just yet.
brookelouvier.com 