The Single, Solitary Cure For Selfishness!

    Jane Austen is credited with saying, “Selfishness must always be forgiven, because there is no cure.” So it would seem. Signs that we live in a self-centered world are simply too pervasive to deny. Even our language is rife with phrases that glorify personal choice above all other values. Think about it – terms like self determination, self-knowledge, self- esteem, self-expression, self-actualization, self-fulfillment, self- improvement, self made and self-advancement are heard everywhere – and they betray a widespread “me-ism.” Evidence abounds that many are, to borrow words from 2 Timothy 3:2, “lovers of themselves.” As a result our culture abounds with selfish individuals who resemble a ball of twine – all wrapped up in themselves! Some are loathe to say it but problems like divorce, drugs, drunkenness, crime and sexual immorality can often be traced to selfishness. Many are narcissistic – pursuing self-gratification through egoistic admiration of their own attributes (or their self-perceived attributes). The term “narcissism” traces to Greek mythology and the young hunter Narcissus who was renowned for his beauty. He vainly fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water. Unable to tear himself away from the beauty of his reflection, Narcissus drowned.
     So, “narcissism” means a fixation with one self. Today that fixation is drowning many in a sea of self-centeredness seen in a myriad of ways – from excessive body paint (tattoos) to excessive jewelry to extreme alterations of the body or body parts to exhibitionism on social media. Cell phones may even be serving to make us more selfish. Besides the recently- invented “self-ies” (a picture of oneself taken by oneself on one’s cell phone), the September 2014 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine included (p 124) research stats that originated from Texas A & M University. The  piece was entitled “Are You ‘Cellfish?’” and it stated that on a sidewalk, a volunteer wearing a leg brace dropped a stack of magazines.
     A full 72% of bystanders stopped to help pick them up – unless they were talking on a cell phone. Only 9%  of cell users lent a hand! Who can deny that selfishness is a major problem in our culture, and is bringing harm to millions in ways ranging from minor to major?

    All this brings me back to Jane Austen’s statement above. I understand her sentiment completely – but there is a cure for selfishness! The cure is the cross! The cross of self-denial that is. Jesus spoke about this cure for the common spiritual cold of selfishness in Matthew 16:24-25 when He said, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Jesus sees human self- will and self-centeredness, not as something to be babied and petted and pampered, but as something we ought to deal with decisively by taking up the cross of self-denial and following Him. Soon after Jesus said these words He demonstrated the ultimate degree of self-denial by dying on a literal cross. The power of the cross to cure selfishness is seen in the words of the apostle Paul in Galatians 6:14 – “But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” The gospel offers a single, solitary cure for selfishness – the cross of self -denial. It is God's wisdom that the way to a crown is through a cross. Have you been cured of selfishness? Think abut it.

--by Dan Gulley