God en die 'real you'

Twee tekste uit The Message wat iets radikaal te sê het oor die self: [1]Self-help vs Self-sacrifice en [2] God se persepsie van jou self lyk dalk soveel anders as jou self-persepsie.

"Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade for your soul?" (Mark 8:34-37)

"Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s “weakness.” Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? " (1 Corinthians 1:25ff)