IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU

029 – JANUARY 2006

IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU

Psalm 8:4 “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?”

The first 4 words in Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life, are “It’s not about you.”
We have a clouded understanding of this game-plan because, in this flesh, we are inclined to operate as Kings and Queens of our own little Kingdoms. You easily zoom away from the Universe, from planet Earth, from a nation, a state, a city, a neighborhood and finally to a world that revolves around our self. Our kingdom. And we become the King. We invite God into our lives but never allow Him to be Lord. We sit on the throne of a Kingdom that most times seems so important and yet so small in the scope of events.

Someone says something to offend you. Someone forgets to thank you in the proper manner. Or someone gives you a unsettling facial expression. Your crown has been challenged and you are Royally upset. This could affect you for the whole day … maybe a week, maybe longer. Yet - everything still goes on. People will still go to work, Dunkin Dounuts will still be busy for morning coffee, the Stock Market will open, and the Red Sox will even play a baseball game. You want to scream to the world, “Don’t you know that someone just upset me?”
Think about it – Just outside of your teensy weensy Kingdom, your concerns go unnoticed. 100 years from now, the offences to your Kingship will be as dust in the wind. It’s just not about you.

Actually, and quite simply - it’s a “love” thing:

1 Corinthians 13:5 (Amplified Bible) “Love is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride) … Love does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

So – in those times when you when you find that your Gospel application has become self-centered rather than Christ-centered … inconspicuously slither off the throne of your life and allow God to be properly seated.