I am a wanderer. I would say that I am a seeker, but sometimes I have no idea what I might be seeking, so I will stick with wanderer. This blog is more a public journal than anything. I don't claim to have life figured out. I simply stumble from mystery to mystery, and share my reflections along the way. Sometimes I feel burdened, and trudge. Sometimes? Well sometimes grace breaks through, and its time to dance.
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Selfishness
“Almost every sinful action ever committed can be traced
back to a selfish motive. It is a trait we hate in other people but justify in
ourselves. ”
Stephen
Kendrick, The Love Dare
_________________________________________
I hear a lot of people talking about what they want
They want fewer taxes
They want a sense that business can grow, unfettered
They want to feel safe
They want affluence
Me too!
But I was taught by my parents
Who were taught by their parents
(Ah that Mennonite tradition)
That we are put on this earth to help others
Not just ourselves
And this has stuck with me
And then there are those pesky sayings of Jesus
Good grief
Blessed are the poor?
Those who hurt for others?
It seems so odd
But it what I have learned, sometimes the hard way
Is that while it is not wrong for me to want safety, and to
seek to flourish
I cannot strive for those things
If the cost is too high
It is OK to seek to rise to the top
But not if you have to do so by destroying and minimizing
others
By lying
By manipulating with fear
It is not OK to create a sense of safety
If you do so by isolating, and leaving other people to die
It is not OK seek affluence if my efforts leave others in
poverty
Or hurt others
Or even hurt the earth (yes I am talking about climate
change)
It is not OK
We cannot get what we want by using power, and brutality
Inequity, and falsehood
And leave others behind
Not only is it not moral
Not only does it violate God’s template for how to live
But it doesn’t work
As Thich Nhat Hanh notes,
“The fact is that when you make the other suffer, he will
try to find relief by making you suffer more. The result is an escalation of
suffering on both sides.” (― Thich Nhat Hanh, Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the
Flames)
We cannot be selfish ( which is where many in America seem
to be right now. “America First”. “Me first”)
We cannot leave damaged people and a damaged earth in our
wake
It is as the prophet Micah once said (to a country that was
behaving much like us)
“God has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does
Yahweh require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with
your God.”
Indeed!
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