"He has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake
will find it."
(Matt. 10:39)
Selfishness is the epidemic disease of our day. Unbeknownst, to those
suffering from this disease, it is destructive. We are systematically taught
from our earliest days to "look out for number one," to "pamper ourselves," and
to "encourage self-actualization, self-awareness, and self-esteem." We have made
a supreme vice into a supreme virtue. As a result we have become self-absorbed,
self-concerned, and self-consumed. We have also become supremely unhappy and
unfulfilled. As psychologist Paul Kellerman has pointed out, this is precisely
because "The only path to genuine happiness and fulfillment is through service
to others. It is only as we give ourselves away that we can truly discover
ourselves."
Whereas, in times past the motivating concept that shaped our society was
"faith in God," it is now "self-fulfillment." The modern cult of self beckons us
to "find ourselves" by turning inward. It entices to "satisfy ourselves" by
"being true to ourselves." Modern man wrongly assumes that all his personal ills
are a result of his failure to "love himself," actually nothing could be further
from the truth. He has been brainwashed to believe that the root of all bliss is
"self –esteem." But one of the most basic principles of sociology is that
satisfaction, purposefulness, contentment, and success are all directly
connected to selfless service. In other words, authority ultimately resolves
itself upon the servant not upon the tyrant. This basic concept of social
development is understood all too well by the administrators of many of our
contemporary social service institutions. They recognize that whatever agency
serves the needs of the people will ultimately gain the allegiance of the
people. So, they serve. And, as a result of the entitlements they bestow upon
others, they gain more and more authority. As my dear friend Dennis Peacocke is
fond of saying, "He who serves leads." Unfortunately, many believers have
seemingly missed this truth.
Notice what Jesus taught His disciples, "And He said to them, ‘The kings of
the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over
them are called benefactors. But not so among you, let him be as the younger,
and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the
table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you
as the One who serves. But you are those who have continued with Me in My
trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me,
that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging
the twelve tribes of Israel’" (Luke 22:25-30).
The cult of self is contradicted by the whole of history. The great lessons
of the history are invariably told through the lives and work of men and women
who put the interests of others before their own, who put the safety of others
before their own, and who put the happiness of others before their own. Compare
the life stories of men like William Wallace, George Washington, Patrick Henry,
Booker T. Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill with our modern day
obsession with self. The contrast is immediate and enormous. The heroes of the
past were always those who resisted the temptation of selfishness. They fought
for justice, they cared for the needy, they worked for mercy, they fed the
hungry, and they rescued the perishing. Their greatest accomplishments were
always the result of their comprehension that servanthood was ultimately the key
to significance and success.
There is an axiomatic principle of life that reveals if a person or thing
does not abandon its independence and right to exist as a "free agent," it will
never fulfill the purpose for which it was created. Marriage is an example of
this truth. It was the intent and the design of the Creator that in marriage two
individuals become a single unit. "These two shall become one flesh" (Gen.
2:24). This does not mean that the woman loses her identity, and becomes a mere
"shadow" of the man. But it does mean that both are required to lose their
independence in order to attain the fulfillment and joy that God purposed in
marriage. Each individual must be willing to abandon "self" for the sake of the
marriage.
Our society is seeing the purpose and joy drain out of marriage because
individuals have become more and more preoccupied with self-fulfillment. As long
as marriage partners put their self-fulfillment as the focus of their
relationship, they remain separate individuals and the "life" of the marriage is
lost.
This principle is evident in the biology as well. For instance, a living cell
in an organism, such as the human body, is not designed to function in and for
itself. Each cell was created to function in service to the other cells in the
organism. On occasion a cell will step out of its proper place and begin to act
independently. When this occurs the cell has become cancerous and must be
destroyed in order that the life of the body might be spared.
The world of physics provides us with another example. The three subatomic
particles – protons, neutrons, and electrons – are useless existing
independently. They can, however, lose their independence and become bound with
other particles to form the elements that make up our universe. Together with
other atoms, they form an almost infinite number of compounds that bear no
resemblance to the identity of the original elements.
Plato, over three hundred years before Christ, understood this principle and
its relationship to the social order. In reference to a society that had
demanded the independence of the individual to the detriment of the whole, he
wrote, "They fret at the least hint of servitude, and won’t have it; for at
last, you know, they care nothing for the laws written or unwritten, that no one
may be their master in anything. This then is the beginning from which tyranny
grows." [Great Dialogues of Plato, New York: The New American Library,
1956. pg. 362.] When a people are consumed with independence and
self-fulfillment they are on the road to the loss of liberty.
In the economy of God one will only find frustration and emptiness seeking to
serve and satisfy one’s self. On the other hand, true fulfillment and joy are
ours if abandon the quest of self-fulfillment, and lose our life in God’s
Kingdom. Jesus stated it this way: "For whoever wishes to save his life shall
lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it" (Matt. 16:25).
This principle of life could not be more simply stated.
Monday, April 16, 2012
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