The unfortunate reality is that the cure of our ills is ultimately its cause. Expressive individualism is the cause of our hopelessness not the solution to it. If indeed the highest goal in life is happiness (as this worldview asserts) then “be true to yourself” becomes self-defeating. It does not grant what it promises because it cannot grant what it promises. According to the Apostle Paul, hopelessness is a product of godlessness. Ephesians 2:11-12 tells us that before we come to know Christ in faith we have “no hope and without God in the world.” Again, apart from God there can be no hope and no happiness. You cannot have those things if you are cut off from their Source. If you start with the wrong foundation you can only get the wrong results. This is a basic truth that the world is unwilling to believe. The answer to the world’s hopelessness has nothing to do with the expression of our “true selves” but everything to do with us finding God by faith in Christ.
