Others > Me

If you’ve grown up in the church or have been around it for any length of time, you will know that (sympathetic furrowed brow) + “How are you doing?” has a much different connotation than “Hey, how are you doing?” does in the secular world.  Christians are always trying to get at the core of what’s really going on with each other.  “How are you doing?” actually means: “What is the status of your heart and soul?”  It’s a funny quirk, but we do it because we love each other, knowing what True Love is.

In wanting to know how we’re “really” doing, we often ask questions like What are you learning about God?...How are you growing?...What things are you working on right now?  Surely, we should always be “working out our salvation” (Philippians 2:12), striving to “become mature and attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).  So this accountability is a good thing!  I’m thankful for the people in my life who ask me these kinds of questions.

But I have discovered an interesting paradox that is also true: there is great power, freedom, and growth that comes when I focus on other people rather than myself.  Anything that I’m going through or “working on” seems so insignificant when I have the perspective of serving those around me—in fact, I nearly forget about my struggles in those times!

The other night I was face-to-face with a personal situation that has been at the forefront of my mind.  It is something I’ve been praying about and struggling through and, frankly, have spent a lot of time thinking about.  But an incredible, Divine thing happened in that moment: God had someone there for me to minister to.  All of the sudden, my energy and focus centered around serving that person and putting Christ on a pedestal for him.  And the thing that had so consumed my thoughts up until that point suddenly became not as important.  That power in my life became weak in the light of God’s compassion flowing through me in to someone else.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3).  I pray that my life never becomes about me.