Joy Is Not Found In The Mirror
Most of my days are spent thinking about and relying on myself. It’s really one of the most natural and most depressing things I could ever do. True joy comes from have a healthy level of self-forgetfulness. This is something that it has taken me many years to realize and I still struggle at putting it into practice.
One of the first times that this wisdom hit home to me was when I began reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. In this timeless missive Lewis writes:
Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good… above all, that we are better than someone else… I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself all together or see yourself as a small, or dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.
The subtlety of allowing yourself to become the centerpiece of your life is frightening. In my life this sin manifests itself in a number of ways such as:
1. I begin to get impatient with others when I drive
2. I begin to care more about entertaining myself than I do spending time reading and in quiet meditation and prayer.
3. I care way too much about what others think of me.
4. I become self-contained and don’t enjoy the company of others as much.
5. I get moody and tend to be less joyful.
So when I see the warning signs, I have to put on the brakes and ask the Lord to help me become small so that I can delight in how big He is. This brings joy and peace very quickly. It also restores balance to relationships. It keeps you from expecting from others or yourself what you can only get from God.
I don’t always appreciate it, but the following verse is grace unimaginable
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
- 2 Corinthians 4:7
I am free to be a clay jar because of the beautiful love of Christ that He has put in me. I can be weak and inferior because He is strong and superior and He loves me.
Lord I believe this, help my unbelief.
Who is the centerpiece of your life?
Wow, how convicting, but so very true!!!!