I watched the Golden Globe Awards Sunday night. It opened with the host, Ricky Gervais giving quite the scathing opening monologue … one that I couldn’t help but ask “is he serious?” I first thought it was tongue-in-cheek, but the more I watched, the more I wondered if he wasn’t being serious. Basically, he, a “Hollywood insider,” told the audience how self-absorbed they were, that they had no idea about the real world, and that their political rants were not going to be appreciated. His language was much more colorful than mine … I found it quite amusing and then I thought to myself, “this is the problem that I’m seeing in our culture today–how ‘living for myself’ is my life call and what matters is my own sense of happiness and self-worth.” In the season of self-improvement and New Year’s resolutions, I’m all for attempting to be the best version of oneself–whatever that means–and for having an appropriate level of self-care (physically, mentally, and spiritually) … but living your life just to make your own self happy or satisfied seems a bit out of character to the one who calls him/herself a disciple of Jesus. It goes against the grain of how we are created. Am I not supposed to be happy? Well, sure … but maybe there is more than our personal happiness that we are to experience … something deeper.
I recently watched a TED Talk by neuro-scientist Daniel Goleman, and he asked the question if humans found their greatest fulfillment in their own autonomy. He talked about the fact that we as humans are designed for more than the fulfillment of our own desires. This whole idea of “I’m living for me,” is really contrary to the life of a Jesus-follower. This, in my understanding is the great lie to humanity. Galatians 5:13 says, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free (remember that word, free). But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” Paul, the writer of this book, is saying that, “If you want to find freedom in life … you gotta serve somebody–you gotta be compassionate and empathetic with those around you. It’s more than about you!” Jesus teaches us that when we focus on others, then you will find yourself.
We certainly don’t want to serve in order to just make ourselves feel good. That’s a rather narcissistic purpose in our serving. Goleman explained how our biology as humans are literally designed to flourish best in community. When we close ourselves off from others, then we are living contrary to the way our Creator made us. He told the story of a seminary classroom of students of Princeton University and the assignment they were given to preach a sermon. Half the class was given the passage on the Good Samaritan. What they didn’t know was that the professor had staged an individual who was in obvious need outside one of the buildings where the students would have engaged the man in need before they got to class. He indicated that no one stopped to help the man in need, rushing to class, getting ready to preach a sermon on the Good Samaritan.
Sometimes, the opportunity to serve another person is right in front of our faces, but if we are so self-focused, chances are we are going to be blind to it. Living a life of a Christ-follower means that I align my life to a kingdom ethic, where the first is to be last and the last is to be first. The Sermon on the Mount beginning in Matthew 5 pretty much describes it. The story above is a great example of “practice what you preach.” It’s in our own self-absorption that we go about our day, living for “me,” and forget that our bodies are “living sacrifices.” This is what I call “me-ism.” Let’s not fall into the trap of living for “me.” Let’s create a different paradigm in our world today and live for others … and just maybe, there, we will find ourselves.
Real Faith Matters 