The Other Side

I wanted to come back and say a few more words about narcissism and also say again that while we are constantly struggling with this tendency to see ourselves as the center of the world, this is not nor ever should be justification for anyone to feel worthless or isolated.

Again and again (and most recently in the blog postings of the young man believed to have tried to bring down an airplane with explosives sewn into his clothes) we see that tragic dangers of a person who feels they have no value or purpose. Whether that turns inward or outward in violence, it is equally sad and unfortunate.

In Philippians 2:5-11, Paul quotes what we believe was a well-known hymn of his time when he writes,

5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

See, one of the key parts of this, of the self-emptying, involved Jesus' knowledge of who he was. After all, what does it matter to give up something you never knew you had? All those game shows where you pick a prize behind a door...there was often more regret when the contestant got to see what they didn't get--otherwise, hey, something was better than nothing.

I think it's somewhat similar when we think of our focus on ourselves. To empty ourselves and commit to follow God, to be filled with God's grace each day of our lives, actually invites us to first know ourselves and our values, and then to say to ourselves something like, "Yeah, I'm pretty cool, but it's not about me. It's about God."

Therefore, we are all met and are called to meet each person where they are. Does a person need to be built up? Let us do so in a way that cultivates their understanding of God's love for them and the meaning of their life. Does a person need to empty themselves? Let us gentle guide one another to see our life's focus is called to be God, and absent that, becomes an endless striving for our own personal gain (a search that never reaches completion).

Too often, we, the Church, have played into the same individualistic tendencies the world proposes. We do the same thing, only with religious language. Check out the number of hymns we sing that use the personal "I". Pay attention as you go through your day to all the ads, manners and patterns in your life that reinforce that we should worry about ourselves, and "ours." It getting pretty freaky, actually.

Then, perhaps in the new year, we can more adeptly re-focus and turn our lives to focus upon God and God's work in the work. To love others and worry about them as much as we obsess about ourselves. Something like that just might, well, change the world.