In my last few blogs I’ve been highlighting the me-centric writing of our day and how it leavens our relationship with God (my personal Jesus) and our relationships with each other (as in, notice me, love ME).
The self help self centered approach to life is being encouraged more and more as we drift from the kingdom of God into the kingdom of self. It’s a slow and steady drift so that when you sit in church or pick up the most recent populist Christian book, you don’t even notice that someone is stroking your ego in the wrong direction.
It’s most insidious when it draws us away from the paradoxes of the kingdom into the love of self and it’s insatiable needs. In a sense, from knowing God to us being god.
I guess one of the most tangible examples is when we look for others to love us instead of us loving others. Our criteria for ‘the one’ we are looking to marry. Our love languages that someone needs to fulfill (still a top 10 book on the CBA list). Our flirting with others in hopes of reciprocation… All the while God whispers that when we love others, we are being loved ourselves.
This came home to me this afternoon as I was watching a short presentation by Eva Ensler, author of “Vagina Monologues.” She was speaking about female genital mutilation around the world and what she and a number of brave women are doing about it. Eva is a Buddhist who has spent 40 years trying to reconcile the pain of being abused and to help others find salvation from the monstrous fact that the UN recently stated: One in three woman in the world have been beaten or raped.
Her journey has lead her from Afghanistan to Mexico, wherever she can help empower women to overcome the butchery of their persons. This walk has recently led her to a part of Kenya where she opened a new home for girls of the Massai who are escaping being cut. A friend of hers travels around with this nomadic people teaching them a better way. The new home is like a rescue station.
At the opening, Eva said that among the hundreds of girls dancing in the dust in their gorgeous red dresses, it finally struck her, that “when we give, in the world, that which we want the most, we heal the broken part inside each of us… that happiness exists in giving away what you want the most”.
Jesus said it this way; that we should treat others in the way we ourselves want to be treated. Paul said that love is not selfish. Solomon said that the righteous gives without sparing. God does love us tremendously, but we need to watch this drift towards the self. The flow of love, the love we need, comes to us in giving first and receiving as a result.
I apreciate you heart and desire to serve. One question that I had regarding the blog. I see youmentioning that we should learn from the example of the buddhist. And I think that can be commendable. The one thing that I see missing in your post is that our love should flow from the Gospel. Becuase God love us first we can love, (1John 4:10) and that our love should flow from sound theological teaching (1 tim 1:5). My point is the only reason that we can love is when we see that we have been love first and forgiven of our sins, that what we derserve is wrath but instead we are getting mercy. I just see in my life I cannot propose myself to love, love has come out pof my life as I see the wonderfull work of redemption that Christ as done in me.
Thanks
— jose Mercado Feb 22, 04:54 PM #