This is a repost from a few years ago. Someone said this ubiquitous phrase to me the other day and I remembered that I had written about somewhere. That somewhere was on my very own blog. Check it out:
My children, who are now grown and think I am old and peculiar will often respond to my strange habits or proclivities with “you do you.” I used to think this was funny, and actually kind of empowering, since I do think and act differently than your average millennial. But, as I mulled it over in my old, peculiar brain, I decided that “you do you” was pretty bad advice theologically.
If I followed the mantra of “you do you,” I would eat only tortilla chips and salted (not ‘lightly salted’) almonds and Breyer’s Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. And I would drink only ice water (with good ice) and extra hot hazelnut coffee from Panera (with plenty of half and half), with an occasional Diet Coke fountain drink thrown in (not into the coffee of course) for good measure (again, good ice). I would lie in my hammock for days on end and read stacks of books and sleep. I would rarely leave my house unless I ran out of the above-mentioned foods. And I would wake up in the morning around 9:30am and wear a hat every day because I would never fix my hair. I would use parenthesis liberally.
If I followed the mantra of “you do you,” I would take every opportunity to tell you why you are wrong, and I am right. I would complain incessantly about anything and everything. I would criticize the way you thought and dressed and spoke. And if those words that you spoke hurt me, I would not forgive you.
If I followed the mantra of “you do you,” I would believe that I was too bad to enter God’s presence; that I was too small to gain his attention; that I was too far gone to deserve his forgiveness.
And I would be right.
Because if I followed the mantra of “you do you,” I wouldn’t be able to restrain my tendencies to hurt and to hate. I wouldn’t be capable of forgiveness and flourishing. I wouldn’t be fit to come close to God.
So, I have decided instead to live by “you do Jesus,” since the whole “you do you” just isn’t gonna cut it.
If I live by the mantra, “you do Jesus,” I can retrain my brain and restrain my body to make it healthy and holy.
If I live by the mantra, “you do Jesus,” I can measure my words and monitor my mouth and renew my mind.
If I live by the mantra, “you do Jesus,” I can not only forgive the ones I hold captive, I, myself, can be forgiven! I can become fit because he was forsaken; lifted up because he brought himself low! I can give him my rags of shame and gain his robe of splendor!
If I live by the mantra “you do Jesus,” I can come close to God!
So, really, you don’t want me to do me.
The me you see now is Jesus in me, slowly (oh, so slowly), but ever so surely working out my salvation for his glory. I am learning to walk in his ways (clumsily, imperfectly, even sometimes disobediently), and he is making me into the Tori he intended before the world began.
I am learning to rest in his love.
Next time you hear “you do you,” don’t let it fool you. And don’t let it make you a fool.
Don’t “you do you.” Hide yourself in Jesus instead.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-4