Date of Award

4-2009

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Department

Seminary

Abstract

The struggle of being me, or living my true self, has been a longtime wrestling match for humanity that has not always produced a raised-arm victor. Personal identity struggles are as old as human life and can be traced all the way back to Adam and Eve. Yet every human being has that same desire: to know themselves and be known and still be accepted for who they really are. It has raised its head through people living in the shadow of rejection and struggling within their relationships. Yet, I claim that the struggle of being me is designed by God to be humankind's primary spiritual journey and that being me can only be discovered through converging two life roads: God-sensing and people-loving. Other solutions to being me have pervaded popular society. Psychology has focused on the retraining of the mind, sociology the retraining of behavior, science the retraining of personality type, religion the retraining of morals, and spirituality the retraining of the soul. Each has made progress in some part, but has not completely been successful in helping people understand and know themselves as part of a God-intended spiritual journey. I plan to show that being me is humankind's primary spiritual journey because: it is God's 01iginal plan; it is humankind's innate drive; and it is a lifelong spiritual journey. I also plan to show that being me can be discovered through two roads: the road of God-sensing because it begins in sensing God and results in congruent holiness; and the road of people-loving because being me is defined in life relationships and creates freedom to love others. The thesis will be presented in the project of writing a personal book that will target both a Christian and non-Christian audience using a style that will draw from personal experiences.

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