THE CHAIR

We have a new chair in our living room.  When I got home from work I started this new habit of leaving my computer bag on that chair.  This move has not been well received by my wife.  She asked, “Is there another place you can put your bag.”  Nothing came to mind.  So, my bag stayed on the chair.  Her next move was to create a new space for my bag, the closet.  So, after being introduced to the new bag location, I came home from work and my bag went back on the chair.  “Babe, I have a new place for your bag.  Put it in the closet!” she said.

But here’s the deal:  I’m the MAN of my house!  I’m the KING of my domain! It’s MY house!  I can put MY bag wherever I want.  So, do you know where the bag goes, now?  Neatly placed in the closet.  You see, I’ve grown to realize I can demand my way and be awful lonely at the same time.

There’s this strange phenomenon in child rearing called the terrible twos. I’ve heard it said that these days are terrible because that’s about the time a kid realizes the entire world isn't going to revolved around them for the rest of their lives.  That’s a tough lesson.  Some of us are still having a hard time with it.  Our terrible twos continued into our terrible tens and our terrible twenties.  We failed to learn this important life lesson:  It’s not about me!

If it’s not about me, who’s it about?

• IT’S ABOUT JESUS!

Paul tells us this about Jesus: ¹⁵ He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. 2 Corinthians 5:15 (NLT)

Paul is saying that Jesus didn’t give us a new life through being beaten, tortured, and nailed to a cross so you and I can live selfishly. 

• IT’S ABOUT OTHERS!

³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3-4 (NIV)

That’s why I love the church.  One of the amazing gifts the church gives us is complicated people God’s brought us into community with that He wants us not just to tolerate but to actively love.  People like:

#1 SISTER SANDPAPER who rubs everyone the wrong way

#2 BROTHER VAMPIRE who sucks the life out of you

#3 SISTER SASS who’s a champion bubble buster and dream killer.

#4 BROTHER VOLCANO who always seems to have a high number of casualties around him.

#5 SISTER MEGAPHONE—if she corners you in a conversation, it’s a life sentence.

#6 BROTHER BOOMERANG who can always “boomerang” the conversation back to him or his kids, always.

One of its purposes of the church is to get us past ourselves.  There are over 200 “unto others” and “one another’s” in the New Testament.  In other words, it’s not about me!