Guest Blogger

Today I want to do something different with my blog.
You are getting used to my thoughts and opinions on things, but I want to bless you with the insights of a friend of mine. Rev Gareth Killeen is our guest blogger today. Here are his thoughts:

LIFE IS NOT ABOUT ME

Life is not about me. This is one of the hardest lessons the Gospel has to teach us. For everything in society screams at us that life is in fact all about us, and that if it is not then we are doing something seriously wrong. ‘Look after number one!’ ‘Everyone for themselves!’ ‘It’s a dog-eat-dog world!’ ‘Survival of the fittest!’ These are just some of the messages we are relentlessly being force fed through TV, movies and magazines. A billboard for a popular car a few years ago summed up this attitude up by showing a picture of its vehicle with the words, ‘Me. Me. Me,’ splashed all over it.

But life is not about you. This truth may come as a quiet whisper at first. A feeling of disquiet deep within that gradually begins to protest at this ‘me-centric’, self-absorbed society. “Surely,” we begin to ask, “There is more to life than just me?” For self-absorption only leads us down the rather dark and lonely paths of selfishness, insecurity and unfulfillment. As the old saying goes: ‘A person wrapped up in themselves makes a very small package indeed.’

The Bible brings to us an entirely different, yet profoundly simple message in comparison. You are a beloved, precious child of God, but life is not about you and you were not created to live as if it were. If we want to learn more about this then we need look no further than Jesus. Jesus, who has been described as the ‘human face of God,’ did not follow the ‘me-first,’ self-absorbed models of life that we are told are essential to our happiness. Instead, Jesus was quite prepared to spend his days involved in matters other than himself: Worshiping God, helping the sick, washing feet, loving the unlovable, and standing up against oppression and injustice,.

Jesus was utterly focused on God and then through God onto others. And we have been made to be like Jesus – to imitate his way of being. Romans 8.29 (MSG) sums this up beautifully:

“God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.”

Thanks to Gareth for these insights. Gareth is heading up So What! at the moment (under the ministry of Crux Mobi Media). If you are in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday evening come and listen to Gareth as he shares at the Wesley evening service (6pm).

Living in Grace,
D3LM3