Kick Me?

It was once said that “if I could kick the person responsible for the majority of my problems I would not be able to sit down for a week.” The humor of that line fades away into the truth that it states. The hardest person to influence, to help, to disciple is yourself. Yet you are the only person that can adjust you. And the time you take to grow and invest in yourself always returns 100%.

But for whatever reason we get in the way of ourselves and cause ourselves most of our problems. Think of the last time you had a problem in life, now think how much did you contributed to that problem? Be objective, think critically of how your emotions, your conclusions, your approach caused the problem to get worse. Most of the time you will conclude that you robbed yourself of so much growth through pride, bitterness, anger, and selfishness.

Joy is one of the silent victims of our sinful behavior. It usually is the first to receive the killing blow from the hammers of our selfish ambition. How much disorder is in your life? Did you know that disorder is the fruit of “me first” behavior? The level of dishonor, difficulty, disorder is often in direct proportion to how selfish you really are. Disorder is a message that says “Examine yourself!!!!”

Selfishness is hard to pin down because we often picture a person that intentionally hordes and hides things they don’t want to give away. Like the child with the cool toy that does not want to share. But can a child that never has the stuff still be selfish? Yes! And often that internal selfishness, which is not attached to material things, is the worst.

It’s the hardest to find and the most difficult to define. I have seen many people in life that give and are still selfish. It’s legitimate selfishness. Legitimate selfishness has very good, legitimate reasons behind it, but in the end it still kills your joy. It still robs you of your humanity.

Joy and selfishness can’t exist in the same room, so choose this season to DO something for someone. Show that beautiful joy that is inside to the world! As you do that selfishness will melt into selflessness.

“Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.” (2 Corinthians 8:2)