Where Are We Going, and Why Begin Here?

The Destination Must Be Named First
Every real journey begins with a destination.
Before we examine ourselves, before we study Scripture, before we talk about truth or growth, we need to know where we are going and why the journey exists at all.
Scripture is not vague about the purpose of human life.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
(Deuteronomy 6:5, ESV)
When Jesus was asked to name what mattered most, He did not introduce a new goal. He clarified the one we were created for.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
(Matthew 22:37–39, ESV)
That is the destination.
Not information for its own sake.
Not theological precision as an end in itself.
Not religious activity or moral performance.
The goal is to become people who love God rightly, love others faithfully, and live in alignment with the truth God has revealed.
Scripture calls this life discipleship.

Discipleship Does Not End With Us
Discipleship is not a private project.
As we grow, we are meant to help others grow. As we learn, we are meant to pass on what we have been taught.
“What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
(2 Timothy 2:2, ESV)
This is why this project exists, not to win arguments, but to form disciples who can walk faithfully and help others do the same.
But naming that purpose immediately exposes a problem.
We cannot lead others where we have not gone.
We cannot teach clearly if our thinking is unexamined.
We cannot love rightly if our minds are quietly shaped by something else.
This is why orientation comes first.

What Self-Examination Is — and What It Is Not
At this point, an important clarification is necessary.
When we speak of self-examination here, we are not talking about examining our salvation, tallying sins, or questioning whether we belong to Christ. We are not performing a repentance checklist or revisiting justification.
That work belongs to repentance, confession, and assurance, not orientation.
The self-examination we are beginning is about alignment, not atonement.
Scripture teaches that in Christ, the decisive work has already been done.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
(2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)
Our hearts have been made new.
Our standing with God is not what is being evaluated here.
What remains is the renewal of the mind.

Why Renewal of the Mind Makes This Journey Necessary
Scripture does not describe the Christian life as a struggle to become something we are not, but as a struggle to live in line with what God has already done.
That is why Paul writes:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”
(Romans 12:2, ESV)
This is not a suggestion for later maturity.
It is a warning at the beginning.
The world is always forming us.
If our minds are not being renewed, we are already being shaped by values, assumptions, and priorities that do not come from God.
This is the reason for the journey.
We are not trying to die to ourselves by effort or manufacture humility by willpower. In Christ, our old self has already been dealt with at the cross. What remains is learning to stop living as though the old patterns are still in charge.
Dying to self, in this sense, is not something we accomplish.
It is something we recognize.
It means releasing our claim to be the center, the authority, and the final measure of truth, and allowing our thinking to be brought into alignment with who we already are in Christ.

Why Orientation Comes Before Everything Else
If the destination is loving God fully, loving others well, and helping others walk toward truth, then readiness matters.
Not because we are earning transformation,
but because renewal does not happen automatically.
Orientation exists to prepare us for that renewal.
Before we examine Scripture, we examine our posture.
Before we test ideas, we test assumptions.
Before we seek answers, we clarify readiness.
The question at the beginning of this journey is not what do I believe?
It is this:
Am I ready to seek truth honestly, so that my mind can be renewed and my life brought into alignment with who I already am in Christ?
That is why we begin here.