don't be insular

[Lou Ruppert <lruppert@ucf.org>]

This week is on Philippians 2:1-5:

  If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any 
  comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any 
  tenderness and compassion,  then make my joy complete by being 
  like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.  
  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility
  consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not 
  only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
  Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 

Paul is a pretty good coach in chasing people towards the goal of
perfection.  In this, he's telling people to look around and not just to
focus on themselves and on putting themselves on top of the pile of
monkeys that is the human race.

The way Paul puts it, and the way I see it, is that if you're getting
anything at all out of your connection with God, whether it's love, or
money, or skill, or even just the hope of salvation, then you should be
spreading that around.  There's always someone who needs something
you've got.  Life is not a philosophical textbook where everyone is an
interchangeable automaton, each providing the sum total of its own needs
and interacting simply as a formality.  Some people have lots of one
thing and hardly any of another.  Some have nothing.  Others have tons.
Some need nothing, and others need all sorts of things.  In the same way
that God keeps his eye on us to provide for us when we come up short, we
can be looking at the world around us with the same eyes.

God sees us whether we try to be seen or not.  A lot of people waste
their time making lots of noise and show to make people look at them and
worship them.  "Hey, look at me, I'm slightly better than all of the
other monkeys!"  If you're constantly doing things to get people to see
you, you're distracting them from seeing much of anything else.  Don't
waste your time trying to climb the ladder and be on top.  Instead, look
around you and see who needs help getting up.  Jesus had so many
opportunities to be number one at the expense of others that they even
sought him out in the desert.  He didn't even have to make the
opportunities.  They just came right to him, but he didn't take them
because he wanted to help other people.  He loved others enough that his
focus was on them and their wellbeing, and not just himself and his. 
Love others and you will notice them and their needs.

That's not to say that you shouldn't accept a good thing if it comes to
you, or that you shouldn't do what you can to make your life nice. 
Everyone does that.  Even Jesus did that in preparing a nice room for
passover, and in accepting the jar of nard the lady cracked over his
head.  The trick is that it shouldn't be your primary focus or something
to shove others out of the way to get.  Be thankful for the nice things,
but don't make them your object of worship.  If you go around jumping
and shouting "I love my shiny car!  Look at it!  So shiny!  Behold, it
emerges from the garage!  Glory!" and never give a thought to God or
your neighbors, you may want to reexamine your values, especially if all
of your friends have to walk to the grocery store because you don't want
them to get dirt in it :)

When God gives us stuff, it can be an opportunity to be 'little
jesuses', sharing those things with the people we love.  Our attitude
should be the same as Christ's attitude, as he is our example and
teacher.  Watch how he has done things and continues to do them and
you'll get the hang of it and begin to understand.


-Lou
(a somewhat insular guy who loves his shiny car, but getting better)