It's All about Me, Right?

You are the determiner of your own destiny. This is the truth statement that underlies popular Western culture. This is the same under-pining of most salvation motivated mainstream Christian believers. This is the bottom line for the self-help movement.

We operate in a universe that says we can change our stars with enough hard work and a little luck. That hard work is fixing the behavioral damage of our parents and the genetic legacy of our appearance, but we can all reach our potential with enough surgery and medication. In the midst of all the available options to become all we can be via the secular world, the Christianity we encounter in the media is portrayed as able to sell us perfection in the afterlife, if only we believe.

Except that isn't actually what Jesus was talking about. He wasn't offering us looks or fame or charisma. He wasn't even selling the afterlife. He was selling this life. And he wasn't telling us how to get rich and famous, he was telling us how to actually be happy, actually matter, actually be human. Jesus did not become the Christ, the resurrection and the atonement so we could go to heaven. It was so that we could be fully human. It was so we could have meaningful happiness. And the way home isn't by taking care of our own selves, it is by taking care of each other.

People, by design or by nature, are communal creatures-we cannot live alone. The miracle of self-awareness creates exactly this need to live in community. “Is there anyone else like me?” is the first question we ask with our self-awareness. Earthworms are not awake at 2am wondering if anyone really understands them. People are. Children explore this question – babies and grade schoolers and high school students. Adults do it – college students and barflies, secretaries and parents, retirees and nursing home patients.

Christianity teaches us a simple and profound truth. We must consider other people before ourselves if we want to satisfy the itch of self-awareness. When we worry about our relevance, if we are needed and if we are contributing to society, we are being self-absorbed. We cannot answer own question. It is only in relation to another person that we become relevant, contributory and needed.

Have you ever taken the trust test where you stand with your back to someone and fall? Always sure that we are going to fall, and we are always amazed and surprised when we don't land on our backs. Christianity is just like this test. And like this test, we cannot do it alone.