NEWSFLASH: You are not the CENTER of the Universe.
Are you growing sick and tired of yourself? Not in a suicidal fashion. I’m talking about a point in your life where you begin to realize that you are not the Sun (SON) in your universe. Following Christ, in our current (Christian) culture, has become based on our own needs and I think God wants to give us a little newsflash.
Wake up people it’s not about you.
Oswald Chambers says; “The continual grubbing on the inside to see whether we are what we ought to be generates a self-centered, morbid type of Christianity, not the robust simple life of the child of God.”
I looked up the word grubbing, just so I’d understand it better. To Grub means “to toil or drudge for food.”
So in this context imagine yourself, drudging and toiling and tormenting over yourself, your needs and your desires. If you really think about it it’s gross.
I don’t want to be that guy anymore or ever again.
Oswald goes on to say; “How long is it going to take God to free us from the morbid habit of thinking about ourselves? We must get sick unto death of ourselves, until there is no longer any surprise at anything God can tell us about ourselves.”
I’m getting there.
No Comments
Leave a comment
Latest Comments
- Matt on What inspires you?
- Laura West on A Story of Bravery
- Donna on Love is an action not a feeling.
Oswald also says self-pity is a very common sin.
If Jesus said “look at the birds of the are” “look at the Lillis of the field”
We have so much more foundation then that, yet we do tend to pray for our-self our things and loved ones, we forget His will is perfect, His plans complete,and we are the only ones that can mess that up. His ways are NOT our ways (and never will be) and our ways are never His. His ways are much higher then ours (higher then we could possibly understand) yet it seems we are constantly trying so hard to be about His ways, instead of letting His ways be about us.
Just some early morning thoughts.
Have a Great day.
Bryan
Beautiful blog, Rick! Thanks for sharing with us.
The language he uses is a bit strange to me.
Can’t the “ought” itself be either self-centered or God-centered? It is what the ought is for that is significant.
How can one have a “robust simple life” when the official guide for that life spans dozens of books, thousands of pages, and two very different languages of thousands of years ago? It is no wonder people toil over whether they are what they ought to be. The “robust simple life” must be found in The East, not The West.
My observation has been that people must first take care of themselves before they are even able to center their lives around anything else. In my experience, it has been those who don’t take action to care for themselves who most obsess about what they can do to take care of themselves. Helping yourself — as in personal development, not necessarily the acquisition of material goods — is not something to be deserved, but rather is something that is necessary to focus on anything else.
And, ironically, that is similar to the conclusion Oswald came up with, that people must indulge in themselves before they can grow out of themselves. If there is no surprise about ourselves, doesn’t that mean that we have finally developed ourselves well enough? Doesn’t that mean we must overcome ourselves? How Existentialist!
That is the thing that is interesting to me about Christian self-help stuff. I find that I agree often with the point, but rarely with the philosophy behind it. Or that the philosophy is co-opted from more modern developments, and projected onto the writing of the past.
Bryan, that phrase “letting His ways be about us” can be taken in so many ways. Does that not indicate that we should look on the world, and ask ourselves, “What is the significance of what is happening to me?” So, we move ourselves away from being the object of an action (God did this to me), to being the subject of an observation (God did this for me). Perhaps that is what is meant by being less self-centered. The meaning is still for us in the way that we seek, just not on us in the way that we seek.
That is why my method of prayer is to observe. You can think of it as observing God’s plan and joining the action.
Ben,
Something stood out that you wrote. You talked about Christianity today as being a lot of Self Help. I must agree and I think it’s way off base from what Jesus taught and what the Bible is prescribing for our lives.
Following Christ is not about us it’s about Him. But it’s also about faith and faith is not something you can shove down anyones throat, explain or be understood for following.
I appreciate your comments.