When I was in college, a certain exclamation was displayed in large letters all over the student center: "It's all about you!" What a cringe-worthy indoctrination for a population who, as a whole, is already self-centered! Sadly, our culture is filled with media, motivational speakers, and self-help books that echo this very sentiment. Do what makes you happy. You deserve to be happy. You do you. Become your own priority. Follow your own heart. It's all about you, you, you. While happiness and self-care are certainly not bad things, prioritizing ourselves and our feelings above all else is not our purpose in life. As a Christian, I cannot think and operate as if I am the center of the universe. Moreover, I cannot live my life to its fullest potential unless Jesus Christ is the center of my universe.
Lately I have been greatly encouraged and convicted by the Puritans. Their books were published 400 years ago, but their timeless words ring ever true in today's world. I just finished The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes, and I was challenged to think about how often my thoughts, motivations, and actions are self-centered. Consider this quotation by Sibbes: "It is good, therefore, to store up true principles in our hearts, and to refresh them often, that, in virtue of them, our affections and actions may be more vigorous." What true principles should we be storing up and reciting to ourselves on a regular basis? "[W]hatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Philippians 4:8).
Sibbes offers an excellent rubric for our thoughts. He says, "We should judge of things as to whether they help or hinder our main purpose; whether they further or hinder our judgment; whether they make us more or less spiritual, and so bring us nearer to the fountain of goodness, God himself; whether they will bring us peace or sorrow at the last; whether they commend us more or less to God, and whether they are the thing in which we shall approve ourselves to him most."
My children are notorious for not watching where they are going. Sometimes they get so caught up in their own little games like jumping over cracks in the sidewalk or skipping tiles in the grocery store floor that they end up bumping into someone or knocking items off shelves. They are having fun in their own little worlds and do not see what lies ahead. Aren't we often like that in much more serious ways? How many times do we fall into sin simply because we are caught up in our own little worlds and not paying attention to what is around us? Sibbes tells us, "'In vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird' (Prov. 1:17). While the soul is kept aloft, there is little danger of snares below." When we are focused on the right things by looking outward instead of inward, we see the traps being set in front of us and do not fall for them.
May your soul be kept aloft as you remember this proverb from Sibbes: "A fire in the heart overcomes all fires without."
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