1. The Vertical Self: How Biblical Faith Can Help Us Discover Who We Are In An Age Of Self Obsession by Mark Sayers
2. Premiss
   1. our lives dont speak to culture the culture we live in
      1. we are afraid of being Christian dorks
   2. replaced biblical command to be holy with the quest for status
   3. early church realized that their identity was rooted in Christ
   4. I will also give each of them a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. Revelation 2:17
      1. Each of us, Christian or not, is searching for that name
      2. sabotaged by our culture
         1. faux identities
   5. trade our pseudo self given by culture to the perfect state of wholeness and peace that God desires for us
3. chapter 2
   1. vertical self - soul concern
      1. God as ultimate authorty
      2. Eternal consequences of sin
   2. horizontal self
      1. status as reward/punishment, peers as judges
         1. temporarality materialism
   3. vertical self
      1. God as judge
      2. Holiness
      3. eternal
      4. delayed gratification
      5. work ethic
      6. growth
      7. character
      8. identity
      9. humility
      10. I
      11. sin
      12. contribution
      13. goal
      14. satisfaction
      15. wholeness
      16. faith
      17. self-discipline
      18. communal
      19. inner life
      20. engagement
      21. facts
   4. horizontal self
      1. others as judge
      2. status
      3. temporary
      4. instant gratification
      5. play ethic
      6. eperiential
      7. attitude
      8. image
      9. publicity
      10. me
      11. boredom/irrelevance
      12. achievement
      13. journey
      14. momentary pleasure
      15. fragmentation
      16. skepticism
      17. self-esteem
      18. individual
      19. outer appearance
      20. distraction
      21. feelings
4. chapter 8
   1. we fall into trap of worshiping the creation instead of creator
   2. our embrace of social selves of cool/sexy/glamorous
   3. what people find cool in others
      1. I guess he does not care what people think about him
      2. confidence or togetherness
      3. he seems so alive
   4. the more you try to be cool, the less you will be
   5. the more you embed your identity in vertical sense of self the more those living under horizontal self will see something in you that will draw them to you
5. chapter 9: Say Hello to Your Future Self
   1. Path of holiness
      1. You now
         1. The return of Christ and creation remade
            1. Your redefined in God's future - the true you
      2. go the other way, away from God, results in a dimnished you
6. Chapter 10: meeting your future self
   1. the image of Christ is kind of like like the picture on a jigzaw puzzle box. Our culture offers no finished picture to help us complete the puzzle of our identity; instead, it merely offers us a jumbled mess of puzzle pieces, which we constantly configure, reconfigure, and then destruct. but the image of Christ offers us the ultimate image of wholeness, pointing us to our true self-image.
      1. Holiness is about becoming the people we are meant to be - the ultimate discovery of our true selves. Each step away from holiness causes us to loose more of our sense of self.
         1. Walter Hilton
            1. the choice is between accepting our true selves, being branded in the image of the Trinity
            2. or our unredeemed selves or being branded in the image of the wretched trinity
            3. forgetfulness of God
            4. ignorance of Him
            5. animal lust
   2. we all desperately want to move toward our true selves, but our desires, egos, and impulses derail our attempts. Our culture doesnt have answers for the conflicts that we feel over our desires. God, however, views our desires as his workshop. He doesnt remove them; instead, he encourages us to redeem them, to use them as fule to move towards our true self.
   3. Philip Yancey
      1. I realized that natural desire was not the enemy of the supernatural and repressing the desire not the solution.
      2. My natural desires ... are pointers to the supernatural,,, God wants us to receive them as gifts and not possessions