The alternative to BTTY is to seek meaning outside of ourselves in Jesus Christ. But how does faith in and submission to God—our infinite, external authority—satisfy rather than stifle us as human beings?

“Be true to yourself.” -EVERYONE

This cultural gospel is so common it doesn’t strike us as odd. Put simply, BTTY asserts that we only find meaning internally, when we are acting in ways consistent with what we think and want and how we feel.

BTTY sounds healthy, but it’s not. If we accept this premise we will find disappointment and bankruptcy, not satisfaction and meaning. One increasingly difficult truth to embrace today is AS HUMAN BEINGS WE WERE CREATED TO FIND OUR SATISFACTION OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES.

BTTY has an authority problem—no one has the right to tell you how to live.

In The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self Carl Trueman notes how 19th century Romantic poet Percy Shelley’s attack on organized religion and marriage was based on a fundamental distrust of authority. He explains how regarding both religion and marriage, “the individual has to acknowledge the existence of an external authority beyond that of immediate, personal desires.”

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