It's Not About Me

I've read portions of "A Purpose Driven Life" over the years, though I haven't read the whole book. I like a lot of the thoughts given, but the one I like the most is at the very beginning: "It's not about you." That thought rattles around in my head quite a bit, especially during the past year, and a few revelations have resulted in this thought process.

The first starts with me, embarrassingly enough. In reading through my previous blog entries, and reviewing the things that have bothered me over the years or have captured my attention, I have come to the realization that much of them are very self focused. Everything is about what I need or what I want, like or don't like. That's OK in that it's the place where I was, and I think I needed to go through that to grow, (and thank God FOR blogs, because writing these thoughts down has enabled me to review them) but I realize now how self focused it all has been.

This brings me to the second thought, and it may require more posts to completely follow the thought through: How much of our Christian life is focused on our own personal growth? This year, I got really tired of being around Christians. There was a restlessness and frustration that came from dealing with Christians on a daily basis. I know, I know, Christians are people too, full of faults and complications. I know this because I am full of faults and complications. But the "lightbulb moment" came from realizing that maybe that's not WHO I should be spending most of my time with. Am I keeping my light under a bushel? Or in a church? Or surrounded by like-minded friends that encourage ME?

So this is where I'm at. My time needs to be spent with non-Christians. Telling others about Christ is important, but what the world needs is to see the Word lived out, real, and modeled by example. Out there, in the community, involved, and letting THE light shine. I'll let you know how it goes.