Now I will be the first to say, I am NOT a saint!
Imperfect Moron is my middle name,
Self centered and recalcitrant are my maiden names.
Even so...
I must exalt in the joys that come from saying to ones own self, "screw you, self!" and opting instead to choose to do somethign that benefits another human being.
What if?...
what if, instead of "looking out for #1" we all just put the needs of others before our own. This is not to say totally neglect our own needs either. I guess...as God would say in the bible, "do not look merely (merely being the operative word) to your own needs but also to the needs of others."
What if I looked out for your needs before my own, and what if you looked out for my needs before your own? Would that not be some sort of joyous reciprocal thing?
And what if you did such for your neighbor, who did it for me, and I did it for his neighbor, and you as well, knowing that you both were also concerned for my best...well...isn't that a humanly physical representaion of what God might want of us, in the name of His only son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ?
I think that the phrases:
"I deserve it," or "I deserve better" are counter to this concept and yet they are both are a part of contemporary American/Western Cultural thot.
The idea that "I cannot love another, unless I first love myslf" is so prevalent and yet, from God's perspective is utter crap.
He says "love others,"
He says "Deny Self."
When we diss our governments as being war-mongers and yet we will not reach out to our neighbor and count our own safety and needs as less, well then, we are selfish and sin centered and are vile, and have no ground to accuse our governments.
A man once said to me (and I like his perspective)
"I am 3rd."
He went on to elaborate:
-God is first.
-then the needs of every one else around me.
-finally afterwards, come my own needs. I do not deny them. They just come last.
I think this is a very good perspective and I think it is what is wrong with our modern Western Culture.
If you disagree, well fine.
It will not change my stance.
But every opinion is valuable.
:o)
hehehe
2 things...
ReplyDelete1) I am very in agreement with your post. I really wish that I could live my life this way to the fullest extent, and God knows that I try to. There are certainly times when I put myself before others, whether out of habit or selfishness I can't always be sure. However, I do try my best to look out for others. I think if everyone at least /tried/ to look out for those around him then the world would be so much more trusting and open... That's something I feel that we really lack here in the US... I could just be blowing hot air though...
2) Why doesn't your RSS feed work, madre?
Well my dear child, I have not got a clue as to why that is.
ReplyDeleteI will have to check on it.
MaMih
I can agree with what you said.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I do things that are not selfish as a means to help others and they look at me like "and you're doing this for me why?" like they assume I'm helping them for a selfish reason. They can't grasp that a person would just be nice to be nice. LOL It's sad.
Sometimes I have to admit, I've experienced kindness and was suspicious of it. The way society has you look at the way people interact makes doing a selfless act as "weird" in many cases.
~L~
Yeah, you betta! :-p
ReplyDelete