The Scripture (Psalm 119:36), a story, an observation and a prayer on selfishness

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 119:36 (NIV)
Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.

THE STORY by Frederick Keller Stamm, “The Conversations of Jesus”
There is an (Asian) story which relates the experience of a man who cried out of the depths of hell, making a plea to the gods for release. The gods asked him what good he had done in his life. All the man could remember was that, while walking in the woods one day, he saw a spider and did not kill it. At once the thin, silvery thread of a spider web was let down to him in hell. Seizing it eagerly, he was slowly being lifted out of his misery. Whereupon, his fellow sufferers, seeing him about to escape, clutched his garment and his feet, and all were lifted up together. But the man, fearing the web might break, cried, “Let go! Let go!” Alas, when they did let go, the thread broke, and all fell back together. In short, the thread was strong enough to lift all together, but it could not bear the heavy burden of a selfish soul.

OBSERVATION:
We learned the lesson early and continue to repeat it every day of our life. It is the lesson of how to be self-centered. But, first, this disclaimer – there is a big difference between pride and self-centeredness. BIG DIFFERENCE. We should take pride in who we are and what we are able to accomplish. We shouldn’t boast in what we accomplish, but we should take great pride in the reality of our abilities and those things that we do well.

Actually, we should only boast in the Lord!

Selfishness is another matter totally. Unfortunately we hear it a lot in the church. “I want,” “I desire,” “I wish,” “I think,” – it is all about me, myself and I. We insert these wishes as if the body of Christ is simply there to meet our selfish desires. And the thin silvery thread will break … and we will wonder why the church and us fail to be better, more successful, more blessed, more fulfilled, more complete.

There’s no “I” in discipleship except at the point of surrender and service. If we truly desire to live a blessed and fulfilled life then we need to get ourselves out of the way and allow Christ to live through us becoming the servant of all.

PRAYER:
Gracious Lord, we struggle with our self-identity. We struggle with self-actualization. We struggle with trying to meet the requirements of some old tapes that keep running through our mind. We struggle and in our struggle we continually come back to the “me” in the middle of the struggle. What we want, what we desire, what we think keeps on getting in the way of allowing you to shine through us, to live in us. Help us to become more “other” centered and less “self-centered,” in the name of the one who emptied himself for the world, namely Jesus Christ himself. Amen