I often hear the somewhat cliche phrase, 'I JUST WANNA BE ME!' I hear it in all kinds of circumstances and for all kinds of reasons but what I have discovered is that the idea behind the phrase isn't exactly what is presented when this thought is evoked. Whenever I have uttered these infamous words I usually find myself in the midst of self-justification, and not necessarily interested in my own self-expression as I am in my own self-preservation, but hey... that's just me.

One thing I am really good at is rationalization. I can rationalize anything. Trying to lose weight? YES! Trying to be healthy? YES! Do you want some dessert? YES! Shouldn't you be skipping that? Well.... here's the thing, I walked XXXXX number of steps today, and I've made healthy choices for the last three weeks, and I'm really missing a few of the vitamins that are going to be in that fruit topping, so really the healthy choice for me is to eat at least two pieces, so that I can get that my daily inputs up of Vitamin C.

See what I mean? Now that's a terrible example and doesn't really make any sense, but that is entirely my point. Our own self-rationalization often doesn't make any sense. It's usually just spin on spin on spin, using a partial truth to give ourselves permission to indulge in something that we know we probably shouldn't.

I am not interested in living like that anymore. You know what I'm interested in? RESURRECTION.

I believe that there is a better version of you living inside of you, just waiting to come out. I'm not talking about a Jeckyl and Hyde type scenario, but I do believe that under the layers of self-rationalization and self-justification lies the person you were created to be. See we don't just do this in the areas of dessert. We do this in character development, skills development, social development, we love to default to the path of least resistance, meaning, WE LIKE TO TAKE SHORTCUTS. In reality that only thing that you short with that short cut is yourself.

Here's the challenge for this week... TAKE THE LONG WAY AROUND. TAKE THE STEPS. COOK THAT MEAL FOR YOURSELF INSTEAD OF ORDERING TAKE OUT. CHOOSE TO DO THE HEAVY LIFTING. You know me, I love cliches, and I can't help myself. What you will discover is that if you choose to GROW as a person instead of just living to SURVIVE the next situation, you will actually begin to THRIVE, and that other person, the one that you thought was long dead, or maybe that you didn't even existed, will begin to be RESURRECTED, you will begin to see that when you rise, the better version of you will also begin to rise, so maybe we could say that DYING to our old habits and our old way of living creates space for a RESURRECTION of a new you, the old you really, the one that lived before you discovered that you could just rationalize all of your bad thoughts, and maybe just maybe we could say that this RESURRECTION could be described as somewhat of a TRANSFORMATION.

I believe that you can do this on your own, absolutely you can. But I also believe that you don't have to, and I would venture to say that I believe you weren't created to. We are created to walk through these processes with JESUS. If you want to start this process of transformation then check out the audio below, as I share more about this idea.

LONG STORY SHORT. We need the best version of you. You need the best version of you. The world needs the best version of you... and to borrow from our friends at NIKE, it's time to... JUST DO IT.

Brett Esslinger is a Husband, Dad, Son, Brother, Pastor, Speaker, Leader, Writer whose life goal is to help people unlock their potential and fulfill their life's purpose. 

Follow Brett on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook: @brettesslinger and of course over on Snapchat at: brett.esslinger