The Book That Gets You
By Jerry McCorkle
Check out Jerry’s short video on this same topic!
We live in a culture that tells us to “find ourselves,” to look inward and define who we are.
But there’s a problem: the self we are trying to define is constantly changing. What we believe today may not be what we believe tomorrow. What we feel deeply now may fade with time.
In Humans of New York, a book by Brandon Stanton, there are countless portraits paired with short reflections—snapshots of real people trying to make sense of their lives. One young woman said she was trying to write a book about herself, but she kept changing.
Just when she thought she understood who she was, something shifted. Her thoughts, her feelings, her direction. The story wouldn’t stay still long enough to be written.
That feeling is more universal than we might admit. So how can we write a final, true story about ourselves if we are still in the process of becoming?
There’s an old story about Emile Cailliet, a French thinker who faced this very struggle. As a young man, searching for meaning, he decided to create his own “book of truth.” He gathered passages from various authors—anything that seemed to resonate with his experience—and compiled them together, hoping to construct something that would finally explain life and himself.
But it didn’t work–because he was changing.
His thoughts shifted.
His understanding evolved.
The very person doing the searching was unstable.
Then one day, in a simple, unexpected moment, a Bible came into his hands. As he began to read, something was different. He later said, in essence, “This is the book that understands me.”
Not because it was written by him—but because it was written by the One who made him.
That’s the turning point.
And in God’s Word, we encounter something remarkable: a book that speaks to every stage of life, every struggle, every question—not because it adapts to us, but because it comes from the One who already knows us completely.
We don’t need to keep rewriting ourselves in search of identity.
We need to be known.
In a world searching for identity, that is not just truth.
It is hope.