"The Me I Want to Be" review

I'm going to try something new today and discuss a book I recently finished reading. The book is called "The Me I Want to Be" by one of my favorite authors and teachers, John Ortberg. As most of his other books, this latest work talks about Spiritual Formation; the transforming of human character through authentic experiences with God.

The book is an encouragement to become the version of yourself that God intended you to be. The book doesn't actually call anyone to change who they are, but instead to become more of who you are. Everything about you was created by God for a purpose. The way you worship, the way you learn, your interests and desires have all been selected by God to create a one-of-a-kind you. Throughout the book he gives examples of how we don't (and shouldn't) all worship in the same way, nor should we feel guilty about it. Some sing, some dance, some pray for hours on end, some write, some talk over coffee, some serve... but nobody should feel guilty if all of those expressions of worship don't appeal to them. Instead, Ortberg suggests we find out which expression of worship we feel most connected with God, and then do that more often and more passionately. Become more of who you already are. He uses a few scriptural examples of different forms of worship... Martha was a server, David was a song writer, Paul was a missionary, and Esther was a beauty-pageant winner. All of them were different, but used what they had to worship God in they way He created them to be.


But this isn't a "you're perfect so don't ever change" sort of book. It does acknowledge sin and pleads for repentance. In fact, it argues that your uniqueness means that you sin in a way that is unique to you. There's an entire chapter about "signature sins", common areas of struggle faced by people of certain personality types.

There was only one apparent down-side that I noticed. It might be a little nit-picky, but I found that a lot of the scriptural references didn't include the book or verse numbers, which made it more difficult to look up the verse for yourself later.

Overall, this is a great book is John Ortberg's humorous yet convincing style. The book also includes a card with an access code for "Monvee", an online spiritual-accessment tool. This code will allow you to complete a test that will reveal things about you, like how you learn, how you relate to people, what sort of sins might be problematic for you, and even which biblical characters are most similar to you. I would highly recommend this book to anyone searching for purpose or struggling to accept themselves.

The Me I Want to Be By John Ortberg