It's Not About Me

"When our deepest desire is not the things of God,

or a favor from God,

but GOD himself,

we cross a threshold".

-Max Lucado

This quote is from a book by Max Lucado, entitled, "It's Not About Me". I am only on page 50, but it's pretty safe to say I will probably be recommending this book to a lot of people. I love the way that Max Lucado writes. He does the most amazing things with words. The topics of his books are usually nothing of mind-blowing complexity, but bring so much clarity to issues that we have been discussing for years.

I loved his book "In The Grip of Grace". Again, if you have been a believer for a while, you have probably heard quite a bit about grace, but he gives such an intense emotional reminder that God's love is nothing like ours. Both books are pretty easy reads, but really cut straight to the heart of the matter.

"It's Not About Me" is all about making life more Christ-centered rather than me-centered. As I had mentioned in a couple of posts already, God is really showing me that I am disgustingly selfish. Sometimes it's hard to admit that we see things in our life that need to change - and it's even harder to change them. But, as I am reflecting on how selfishness plays itself out in my life - I am realizing that it is really at the core of all sins.

At first when God was laying this on my heart I was saying "No, I don't want to go there. I don't want to see what you have to show me about that". But, not allowing God to come into those dark corners of my heart is like telling a doctor that you don't want to hear about the cancer inside of you. For a while, you might go on living your life in ignorance of the disease, but eventually it would spread and cause great pain - greater than the pain of hearing the reality of your condition. On the other hand if you give the doctor permission, he can guide you to healing. I'm not sure why we resist God's desire to heal us. Do we really think that our sin is better left to fester inside of us? Do we actually think that he would say "You have cancer, I don't love you anymore"? How absurd.