God Has Entrusted Me With Myself

The title to this post, “God has entrusted me with myself.” is a quote from the Greek philosopher named Epictetus (AD 55-c.135) who was associated with the Stoics. Epictetus has been one of my mentors from afar over the years. Of course mine has always been a Christian take on the decidedly pagan philosopher (he believed in Zeus and "the gods" and had apparently heard of Christianity, but he was not a Christian).  Still, there is much that can be learned about living well from Epictetus and from the Stoics in general.


Stoicism is often misunderstood. the word stoic has come to mean "unemotional" in today's parlance. In reality however, Stoics like Epictetus didn't teach emotional detachment. Instead they taught we should seek to see things as they really are and not allow our emotions to disturb us to the point of clouding our judgment.  The idea was to avoid suffering by dealing with desires we may have that are contrary to the way things actually are in life. For instance, I may desire very much to be an NFL quarterback, but the reality is, I do not have the physical skills, size, or arm strength required to be one. I have a choice. I can spend the rest of my life feeling frustrated that I am unable to play professional football, or I can acknowledge that I was not gifted to play in the NFL and, coming to terms with that truth, overcome this contrary-to-nature desire.

A good bit of what the Stoics believed can be summed up this way: When something happens, many times the only thing in your power is your attitude towards what has happened. As has been learned in prison camps, through difficult illnesses, and elsewhere - no one can take away your power to choose your response to your circumstances or how you personally elect to view your circumstances. What really frightens and dismays us is not the things that happen to us, instead it's the way we think about these events - our interpretation of their significance - that disturbs us so much.

Another important element of Stoic thinking is that we have duties and responsibilities in this life, and to have a good life, morally, physically, spiritually and otherwise, we must accept and perform those duties. Hence the saying from Epictetus which was mentioned above, "God has entrusted me with myself." God expects me to take responsibility for some things. God's got His part, and I've got mine.

Read up on the Stoics; I think you'll find some things there that will help you to live your life to the fullest. Philosophy can never take the place of religion because it can never answer humankind's deepest need, salvation. But philosophy, like education in general, can help us lead a better life.