Selflessness

To be selfless is so hard for us. To truly have selflessness we must be having, exhibiting, or motivated by no concern for oneself, we must be unselfish. This means that how we think of ourselves - defining ourselves by the objects we own, the job we do, the people who love us, the approval we need - means nothing. It means not defining ourselves by these things anymore and be motivated by something other than our needs.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. Philippians 2:5

How often are we setting aside our own privleges in life? How often are we truly becoming slaves to our fellow human beings. Imagine if we all could do this? Imagine if Christ followers actually set aside their "privilege" and were motivated out of something other than needing to change someone to make themselves feel better. What if we could just serve people how would that change the world? The bigger question is really how would that change us?! You see that being selfless and having selflessness, it does help others and they get to be served, but the real change comes with us. We are able to really to find our self when we lose our self. Jesus put it this way to us - "If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself." (Matthew 10:39)

And so many of us struggle to find ourselves by asserting our rights and demanding that people do things our way. We expect that our privilege is to be recognized and respected by all. We cling to our perceived advantages in life and attempt to get others to submit to them. We do it with our children when we make them follow certain rules that are there just to make us feel better and in control. We do it with our friends when they don't call us or care for us when we thought they should. We do it with our spouses when we demand that our needs be met before we will listen or meet theirs. Do not cling to what you think your privileges are today, lose your life by not identifying yourself by those things. Take on a different form. Selflessness, I wonder how it could change the world? But really the most important question is I wonder how it could change us?

Namaste'