Not About You

 May 31, 2022

“It’s not about you.” If there is anything we need to learn, it’s this. So much of how we Americans approach life is narcissistic. The only parts of the news that interests us is what affects us personally. Most of the time we are completely ignorant of what is happening in other countries unless it has some bearing on our economy or interests at home. Our passions about covid, inflation, politics, are centered on how we personally are impacted. Take the abortion debates raging since the leak of the Supreme Court’s preliminary deliberations regarding Roe v. Wade. Proponents of abortion on demand chant, “My body; My choice,” giving no weight to the fact that there is another body that is always affected, and always negatively. To be fair, the same thing can be said of arguments in support of the Second Amendment, with which I wholeheartedly agree.

Even in religion, we can be narcissistic and self-centered. We want God to bless us as we see fit, hop from church to church because we don’t like the music, the preaching, or someone in the congregation. If church doesn’t meet all our expectations, we bolt. As a pastor, I often heard people say that the reason they left their church (mine or others’) was because they “weren’t getting fed,” as if they had no responsibility for feeding themselves spiritually or contributing to the well being of someone sitting in the pew across the aisle.

It really gets sinister when we run into unexpected difficulties; a marriage falls apart, the company downsizes, the kids go wild, our investments tank, we get a bad report from the doctor. Our plans are shattered, so we rail against God. “It isn’t fair!” 

In Acts 16, Paul’s plans fell apart. He wasn’t permitted to go to the mission field he envisioned; when he finally set off in the direction God laid out for him, he ended up beaten and in jail on trumped up charges. Locked away in the deepest part of the jail, hands and feet in stocks, backs sore and bleeding, suddenly he and Silas felt a trembling. Earthquake! A dungeon is the last place you want to be in an earthquake. If the whole place collapses, no one is going to bother to dig you out.

As it turned out, the only thing that happened was their chains came loose from the walls, and the prison doors were shaken off their hinges. The jailer came in, terrified that his prisoners were escaping, which was a capital offense. Paul reassured him, and preached the Gospel to him, whereupon he and his family believed and were saved. 

None of the things that happened to Paul and Silas were about them. God was setting the stage for the jailer and his family to know Jesus. Over the course of his ministry, Paul endured all sorts of difficulties. He didn’t complain; he knew everything was for the sake of the Gospel. He even said so in Philippians 3:7-8.

“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”

Your troubles are not merely your troubles. They are the means chosen by God to perfect you and to minister to someone else. Don’t take them lightly; through them, God may be setting the stage for someone who needs to know that his great love for them values them so much he was willing for his Son to die on a cross for their sins, and is willing for you to be a part of his plan, as  Peter said, “rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” —I Peter 4:13 NKJV

The problems are never fun, but they can be fulfilling when through them we see someone else encouraged, challenged, corrected, saved. It’s not about you.