Introspection: It's Not All About Us

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

It's Not All About Us

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8 (NRSV)

I have to wonder if I really want to know

The struggle and the pain that others feel

Do I want to hear the stories I see echoed in their eyes?

Or is this love I say that I'm reflecting even real?

From "Only You Can Save" by Chris Sligh

A few years ago, during the three-month period of time I was between jobs, I had the chance to go with some of my Furman Wesley Fellowship friends to the Boys Home of the South to do some volunteer work.  I expected to spend a couple of days doing manual labor with my friends, but when we arrived on site, I was singled out and asked to help debug the network in the computer lab, because of my experience in the IT field.  To be honest, I wasn't very happy about this.  As a computer programmer, I make a living working with computers, and, for those of us who live and breathe in binary, volunteer manual labor can be almost therapeutic.  More importantly, I wanted to spend time with my friends.

During that time, I came to the realization that when I offer myself in service work, it's not all about me and what I want to do.

I learned that there is no I in Christ.¹

I am not talking about spelling.

A couple of years ago, I read about a study that found that atheists and agnostics are more likely to be motivated by compassion than religious people.  As a Christian, this study upset me.  It's not that I think I'm any better than an atheist; actually, I'm pretty certain that there are atheists and agnostics out there who are more "Christlike" than I am.  Christians take their name from Jesus Christ, a man who constantly taught His followers to love their neighbors.  Christians believe in a God who is, as one early church document states, love itself.²  These things considered, I figured that Christians would have an edge in the compassion business.

Still, I can understand why an atheist might be more likely to be motivated by compassion than a religious person.  Many times, a religious person might do good deeds not out of compassion or love for someone, but out of obligation.  One of the researchers noted that religious people "may ground their generosity less in emotion, and more in other factors such as doctrine, a communal identity, or reputational concerns."³  Because atheists do not have to take into consideration religious doctrines or their reputations in religious communities, they have fewer motivations to compete with simple love and compassion.

Jesus once told a story about what might happen at the end of this age, when Christ returns and the Kingdom of God is fully realized in this world.  In this story, all people gather around the throne of Christ.  Some are placed at His right, and some are placed at His left.

To those at the right, Christ says, "Come, you that are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you gave Me clothing, I was sick and you took care of Me, I was in prison and you visited Me."

They ask, "Lord, when was it that we saw You hungry and gave You food, or thirsty and gave You something to drink?  And when was it that we saw You a stranger and welcomed You, or naked and gave You clothing?  And when was it that we saw You sick or in prison and visited You?"

Christ answers, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of My family, you did it to Me."

The people at the left - the people who didn't show compassion to people in need - don't fare so well.⁴

In this story, Christ the King identifies directly with people in need, and He considers any good work done for someone in need as a good work done for Him personally.  Notice that the people at the right-hand side of Christ - those who showed kindness to those in need - did not realize this fact.  They did not realize that when they served their neighbors they were also serving Christ.  They even ask Him when it was that they saw Him in need.  They weren't trying to score points with Christ: they were only concerned about helping people in need.

It wasn't about them getting in good with the coming King.

It wasn't about them securing a place in the world to come (or in Heaven for that matter).

It wasn't about them at all.

It was about hungry people being fed.

It was about thirsty people getting water.

It was about strangers and foreigners being welcomed.

It was about impoverished people being clothed.

It was about sick people being nursed back to health.

It was about lonely people finding a friend.

St. Paul, in one of his letters, encourages his readers to emulate the self-emptying humility of Jesus Christ, who left behind the glory of Heaven to become a servant here on Earth.⁵  It's important to remember that true humility is not self-deprecation or low self esteem - these are actually sinful counterfeits.  In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis describes true humility as self-forgetfulness.⁶  When we do good works with humility, we forget about ourselves and focus solely on the people we serve.

Serving with humility means that we don't insist on doing things our way.  It means being willing to receive a helping hand or a word of advice from someone else.  It means being willing to ask for these things.  It means doing whatever is necessary to effectively give assistance, compassion, and love to people in need.

If we care more about what we're doing than we care about the people for whom we're doing it, then we have a serious problem.

A church in my town has a ministry appropriately called "Feeding Jesus."  Various Sunday school classes and Bible study groups take turns on Sundays preparing meals that will be distributed to day laborers on Monday.  A group of my friends cover the first Sunday of the month, and sometimes I join in.  We prepare lunches consisting of a bologna and cheese sandwich and some sort of a pastry for dessert.  We all walk away feeling good after preparing these lunches, but ultimately it's not about us being good Christians, good humanitarians, good people, or good sandwich makers.  It's not about us, period.  It's about people who don't have steady jobs getting lunch and, hopefully, feeling some love and encouragement.

I can't say that I always remember this fact, for often I participate in this ministry to spend time with my friends.  Still, I'm not going to let the fact that my motivations aren't completely pure stop me from serving.  Whether I am genuinely motivated by love for other people or just want to hang out with my friends and feel like a good Christian, there is work to be done.

As human beings, it's easy for us to get wrapped up in ourselves.  I'm convinced that the struggle against self-centeredness is a lifelong battle.  I guess I haven't changed very much in this regard in the four years since I volunteered at the Boys Home, but nowadays, when I do something for others, I try to keep in mind the people I'm serving.  Doing this gives me an entirely new perspective about what I am doing.

It's not all about me.

It's about God's work of love and redemption being done.


Notes:

1. See my early introspection "There is no I in Christ."
2. 1 John 4:8
3. "Atheists More Motivated by Compassion than the Faithful."  LiveScience, 05/01/2012.
4. Matthew 25:31-46 (NRSV)
5. Philippians 2:5-8
6. C.S. Lewis.  The Screwtape Letters.  Ch. 14

The photograph featured in this introspection was taken by Kirti Podder and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.