What About ME?
Welcome to Me World where all of creation exists solely to benefit You! The sole purpose of Me World is to serve your every need and cater to your every whim. In Me World, ‘no’ is a curse word, and postponing gratification blasphemous. Let’s be honest – what sort of backward society would force its citizenry to live without all that their hearts desire? After all, there is nobody more important than you, right?
At least this seems to be the common mindset among young people now becoming adults. As we watch this generation screaming out, “Look at me!!!” it’s hard to deny that we are in the midst of a period of extreme self-focus.
Here’s my unofficial hypothesis how we got here…
Fueled by the dual income household and working parents’ guilt over putting their kids in daycare, an up-welling of “over-compensatory love” has led the parents of this current generation to raise their kids as if they’re the centers of the known universe, teaching by example that nothing and nobody is more important than them.
It started with loser’s trophies in youth soccer (wouldn’t want to damage any fragile egos!), and has devolved into present day social media platforms which fuel the perception that the rest of the world clamors to know our constant whereabouts, what we ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, what we’re doing every minute of every day, and our opinions on everything – complete with video and pictures.
What modern parents have failed to teach their kids is we can’t serve two masters: God and ourselves.
The bottom line is, God doesn’t care what we want. God wants us to care ONLY about what He wants. The key to peace and happiness in this life is letting go of our personal wants, needs, and expectations, setting aside our self-importance, and turning our attention upon two things: knowing and doing God’s will, and providing loving service to mankind. This is, in a nutshell, what Jesus came here to teach.
Said Jesus, “The Father has sent me into the world to show how he desires to indwell and direct all men; and I have so lived this life in the flesh as to inspire all men likewise ever to seek to know and do the will of the indwelling heavenly Father.”
Put simply, God wants us to submit to HIS will, not the other way around. Toward that end, He sends situations, events, and people into our lives to allow us to grow in that regard. And what God sends seems to have a twofold purpose – a lesson for us to learn or an aptitude for us to acquire, plus an opportunity to love or be of some service to our fellow man. It is therefore God’s intention that we learn to look upon EVERYTHING which comes into our lives as a gift from the heavenly Father designed to both help us grow spiritually and to benefit mankind in some way.
In describing the attributes of God and why He sends apparent “suffering” into the lives of His children, the UB asks, “Is unselfishness — the spirit of self-forgetfulness — desirable? Then must mortal man live face to face with the incessant clamoring of an inescapable self for recognition and honor. Man could not dynamically choose the divine life if there were no self-life to forsake. Man could never lay saving hold on righteousness if there were no potential evil to exalt and differentiate the good by contrast.” (The Attributes of God, 3:5.13)
Sadly, we humans are predisposed to judge what God sends us, classifying or characterizing each thing as good or bad, positive or negative, desirable or not, based on what WE want, instead upon what God wants. In doing so, we are rejecting God’s gifts, and pitting our selfish wills against God’s will. We are essentially taking the stance that we know better than God what’s best for us. Not only is it counter-intuitive and preposterous to believe the supreme creative intelligence of the far flung universe is wrong, flawed, or mistaken, but in many respects, treasonous. (Personally, I have been doing my best to not fight God. It’s pointless. I’ve never won; not even once.)
The principles of Jainism state that, "Self is man's invincible foe, and self is manifested as man's four greatest passions: anger, pride, deceit, and greed. Man's greatest victory is the conquest of himself." (Jainism, 131:6.2)
It’s a powerful clue you’re fighting God when you experience the negative emotions noted in this passage. Whenever you feel sad, angry, and sorry for yourself when things don’t go YOUR way, and you give in to the uncontrolled expression of negative emotions, you’re resisting God.
The question you need to ask is, does having these emotions feel good to you? If the answer is no, they are unworthy of expression in this world, because as we know, whatever we send out into the universe gains energy then circles back to us magnified. If we send out positive energy, generosity, and love, we get like in return. If we express negativity, anger, fear, pride, etc., we beget illnesses, injuries, accidents, setbacks, and more negative emotions in return.
It is mastery of this emotional urge to reject the God-sent curriculum requisite for our spiritual advancement by fending off self-serving desires and self-gratifying behaviors which sets the table for our spiritual progress and service in keeping with the Father’s will.
In addressing the apostles, Jesus said, “But I come with a new message of self-forgetfulness and self-control. I show to you the way of life as revealed to me by my Father in heaven. Verily, verily, I say to you, he who rules his own self is greater than he who captures a city. Self-mastery is the measure of man’s moral nature and the indicator of his spiritual development.”
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