I'm more important than you

It’s hard to celebrate the Lord’s Day when there is war and rioting in the streets. No matter your age, your race, your politics, where you live, or how much money you make, we’ve all been affected by the events of the last few months. And regardless of your politics or the side you’re on, it all boils down to selfishness.

We love ourselves and hate the other guy. We see our point of view and refuse to listen to what someone else has to say. We want what we want and couldn’t care less about who we hurt to get it.

All day long on the news I keep hearing people say, “They just want to do their job and go home to their families.” Do you think the people declaring war on other Americans care one whit about that? They don’t care about little children who had their parents stolen from them over the last few weeks. They don’t care about spouses and sisters and friends who will never see their loved ones again. They only care about their wants and everyone else can just…well, you know.

Sadly, the rest of us are not so different. We may not use guns or trucks filled with explosives to get our way. Our methods are much more subtle—manipulation, control, lies and innuendo. Yet it all boils down to the same thing, selfishness.

We believe our needs and wants are more important than anyone else’s. We lie and stab friends in the back and spread rumors and even pout to get our way. Whatever it takes to come out on top. The sad thing is we are never happy. Getting our way through selfish means never accomplishes our goals. Oh, we may get what we want for a moment. We may smirk and think we really put something over on them. Or, we deserve better and they had it coming anyway.

But then where are we? We are just as unhappy and bitter as we were before. Probably more so. Selfishness never brings happiness or satisfaction. It only breeds bitterness and self-righteousness and eventually a lonely life since we’ve alienated everyone we thought was important to us.

If only we could put another person’s needs above our own, if only we could see them the way Jesus sees them, if only we truly loved the way Jesus loves, it would never enter our minds to take someone else’s value or property or liberty or their life.

I pray we can see we hurt ourselves the most when we put our needs first. We lose so much and gain so little. Lord, forgive us for our hateful acts. Our selfish deeds. Our thoughtless hurting of someone else who you bled and died for. Open our eyes. Show us how you want us to love those around us. Show us how much happier we would be if we put our selfish deeds aside--or our snarky remarks and petty jealousies or catty posts on Facebook--and thought of someone else first for a change.