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.

Selfie Reveal

It’s easy to get discouraged when seeing what other people post on social media. Last week was Mother’s Day. No one posted they were having a bad day. No one admitted their kids forgot to send a card or didn’t bother to call. Even inmates on Death Row seemed to have a better day than I did.

What do you do if your Mother’s Day is less than social media-worthy? Or your Christmas? Or any plain old ordinary day that didn’t line up with what the rest of the world claimed was going on in their lives?

Sadly, very few of us have the sort of life captured on social media. We don’t post pics of ourselves the moment we climb out of bed. Or in a bad mood after a tough day at work. Or cleaning vomit out of the carpet at one a.m. when our little one woke us up sick again. Life is life. It’s pretty much the same for everyone. We have good days and we have lousy days. We have more so-so days than anything, when nothing the least bit interesting happens for us to share with the world.

The Bible says a man is appointed a few days, and they’re full of trouble. Life is definitely full of trouble, whether we immortalize it on our phones or not. Knowing this doesn’t make it any easier to smile and ‘like’ a picture of yet another bouquet of dandelions from our friend’s adorable preschooler when our little darling has just knocked over a display of fruit juice at Walmart.

How do we truly celebrate our friends’ blessings when jealousy rears its ugly head? Recognizing the jealousy and where it’s coming from is the first step. We are always our own worst critic. But we can’t be so hard on ourselves if we want to lead healthy, balanced, productive lives.

Don’t beat yourself up because your life isn’t seemingly as magical as those around us. Theirs isn’t magical either. At least not as much as it looks. More often than not, they feel the same way about what you post. We all have moments, good and bad. It’s what you make of them and what you learn from them that matters.

Make a conscious decision to enjoy your life today. Look for something good in a place you usually overlook.