You are loved. You are worthy. You are enough. You are strong. You are victorious. You got this. Live your best life. Believe in yourself. Care for yourself.
Sound familiar? These messages are preached to us all the time, especially in Christian circles. While these sayings are partially true, they all have one major problem. They’re all focused on YOU!
This is a problem because we, as Christians, are not supposed to be focused on ourselves. We’re instead to be focused solely on God and what He desires of us. Instead of pursuing self-help or self-care, we should be pursuing sanctification. After all, Paul does write in his first letter to the Ephesians,
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification…” 1 Thessalonians 4:3a, ESV
This pursuit of sanctification is what Whitney Capps addresses in her book Sick of Me.
Our current Christian culture is obsessed with being “real” and “transparent” about our brokenness. Whitney acknowledges that being real and transparent are good things, but she warns her readers to not stay in brokenness and encourages them to actually do something that will truly change and transform their lives. This “something” is sanctification. She writes,
“Sanctification is the process of making us holy, set apart for God. It is the only cure for being sick of me.” (1)
Being sanctified or set apart for God is not easy because being separate is hard! But holiness is not the pursuit of happiness; it’s the pursuit of Christ and becoming more like Him. Therefore, the hard is good. And God is best. We can trust that God’s sanctification of us is really the best thing for us.(1)
Whitney writes that sanctification is both a divine process and a human pursuit. When we trust in God and Christ’s work on the cross, we are justified or made right before God. When we are saved or justified, God begins to sanctify us and make us more like Him. Though we are not “good enough”, we can be confident because God will do what He has promised to do. Though we still sin, we can be unashamed because Christ has paid our debt in full! God is the One who sanctifies us, but we still must confess our sins, obey God’s Word, and pursue holiness. We are still broken people, but because of God’s sanctification of us, we are better than we were!(1)
I loved Sick of Me! The “self-help gospel” is a huge issue in the Christian world today, and I believe Whitney handles the topic very well. The book is well-written and very easy to understand. This book reminded me not to buy in to the widely-preached self-help gospel and challenged me to pursue holiness and truly be set apart for God. I would definitely recommend this to any Christian women looking to grow in her faith!
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(1) Whitney Capps, Sick of Me: From Transparency to Transformation (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2019).
