“Maybe it’s all about you!!”
Good Morning. Hope your week is going well and you have enjoyed a little sunshine. My son, Mason was here Monday and Tuesday, he and I definitely enjoyed some walks and sitting in the backyard. The weather has been beautiful. TWO days of radiation left. So excited to be finished. Met with my radiation Dr yesterday and he ask if I was having a party Friday after completing 30 rounds of radiation. No party planned but I will be celebrating and so grateful to be finishing.
Have had a ruff week and have had a thought bouncing around in my head the last few days. I want to share and hopefully encourage one of you.
This is a good example of how I so often in life see something through a little different perspective. None of this is about right or wrong. It is simply seeing something through a little different lens.
Rick Warren wrote a book called Purpose Driven Life, that has sold millions and millions of copies. It really is a good book and he opens the book with this line. "It’s not about you.” Depending on how you want to unpack it, this is true. There was a time for me while thinking through his work and that line, I shifted gears a little and began to look at life this way. “IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU!!!!!”
Maybe like most things in life you have to be careful with both ideas. When I say, it’s all about you. Here are some ideas and how this has been helpful to me.
I learned in ministry and counseling work that I can make everything about other people and that can get very unhealthy. Ministry and counseling are definitely about others but I have to really spend time with my own personal motivation. Why do I do this? And my personal motivation matters a bunch. If I am making my life about everybody else so that I get valued, have meaning and in some way am controlling my future, that became problematic for me. In a twisted way I am saying it’s about others but I was actually using others to give myself value and meaning.
I began to shift my thinking too, it’s all about me! This can get twisted as well. For me what this meant was this. The one person I have control of in this life is ME! When and if I have a healthy focus of self, I am doing things to stay healthy - spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. These are areas I have complete control.
A healthy focus on myself, doing things consistently to care for myself well greatly impacts how I make things about others. I can do things for others out of a selfish ambition and my motivation can be, “it’s not about me,” but in some ways it’s all about me. Philippians 2 has some interesting ideas around this. Paul is talking about Jesus and he says this in verse 7, “rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
When I say it is all about me, this is more of what I mean. Jesus made a choice to humble himself. Others tried to humiliate him, he had no control of that. Neither do you or I. What I and you do have complete control of is a healthy humility, love and value of ourselves so that we can in healthy ways make life about others. Jesus modeled that beautifully.
This may be a little confusing, so let me stop with this question. What are some healthy ways you are making your life about you? Making your life about you so that you can live well, be more of the man or women you were created to be and impact the world in a positive way. You really do have control of your life in this way. When you make your life about you in healthy ways you will have. a bigger impact in this life.
Remember you are loved and of great value! Have a beautiful day!
Peace,