The Death of the I-God

Narcissus is alive and well. You know the story...a cruel man is punished by the gods to fall in love with his own reflection. He gazes at his own reflection so much that eventually dies.

In Ayn Rand's short novella, Anthem, the main character's quest for liberation comes to a conclusion when he discovers one word: I. Equality 7-2521 discovers that the most important thing he can live for is himself. It ends with him carving a tribute to EGO ("This god...this one word, I). This is a message that our society and our country has readily accepted.

We live in a country of narcissism. Most of us deal with this issue at several levels of our lives. We live with one thought: It's all about us. We live with the one constant theme of our lives being: get all that I want and don't care about anybody else.

In my line of work, it is not uncommon for me to run into people who want all of their needs taken care of (baby sitting, for example) and yet have no concern to give back to anybody else. This type of person will complain when any expectation is made of them that they should give up the slightest momentary happiness.

This exhibits itself not only in the world, but also, sadly, in the church. Church becomes, not about serving the Living God, but rather...how can I have my needs met. Of course, nobody talks in this type of language...but rather this attitude is displayed in all sorts of different ways. "I didn't like the music." "Nobody thanked me for making cookies for the fellowship." Or however else it may be explained.

I thought that I was maybe just getting older. That maybe everybody had always been the same and I was just getting cranky with age. But then there came empirical evidence--our country is becoming more and more in love themselves. We are become a country of Narcissists.

Dr. Twenge in her book The Narcissist Epidemic details how parents, society, and other factors are feeding into our desires. Increasingly people's lives are centered more and more around themselves. Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter help others fuel their narcissism by drawing attention to every detail about their lives and thoughts. And, instead of showcasing important thoughts about contemporary issues, the main drive on Facebook seems to promote one's 'hotness,' one's party nature, or popularity.

The effect of this problem is devastating. I know parents who are more concerned with weight loss and working out than their child. They wish to look good for their vacation while their child is neglected and placed in front of a TV. This child will grow up with issues that will take years to deal with. Narcissism is a far reaching multi-generational problem.

For the good work that Dr. Twenge does in her book, she fails to understand the basic thing about narcissism...it is sin. And if we give into our narcissist tendencies, we will share in Narcissus' fate.

Jesus constantly pushes us to look beyond ourselves. In the Bible, there is no command given to 'love ourselves.' Jesus says to the scribe, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart...and love your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:30-31). While it is implied that you will love yourself, there is no commandment to do so. Likewise, Jesus says our whole focus is not to be on ourselves, but on God "Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."(Luke 9:24).

Narcissism and the narcissist tendency to focus on ourselves and our own desires are sin. While we may agree intellectually with Rick Warren's statement, "It's not about me..." we have to learn to put this into practice.

Living in a non-narcissist way involves risk, because you are putting others first. We need to be willing to enter people's lives with an understanding that it might cause us problems. We need to learn not to put our own desires and wants over everybody else's.

In short, we need to learn proper perspective on life: God, others, us. That's right...we do not come first, we come third. This is the way that God wants it to be and we need learn to live with others before us.

As for people who can't live beyond themselves, I feel sorry for them. They are always seemingly mired in depression, frustration, or anger. They don't feel as if anybody is ever doing enough for them and they tend to be the most miserable people I know. I hope and pray that they will stop looking at in the mirror long enough to enjoy the beautiful world around them.

Haiti, the Gospel, and the American Dream

As I write this, I, like most of the world have been witnessing the devestation in Haiti. We have been watching the rescue efforts, hearing reports of mass graves, of untold thousands who have died and vanished, and praying.

Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world have been pouring out their prayers, their sympathy and sending in money to help the people of Haiti.

In the United States, there has been mixed reaction to this devestation. While most people have been asking themselves "what can we do?", there have been others who have used this event as an opportunity to spread hatred and attempt to politicize this disaster.

First we had Pat Robertson who suggested that this event had occurred because the Haitian people had made a 'pact with the devil' and now God was bringing to bear his wrath. Rev. Robertson is truly entitled to his opinion, and as a pastor, I can see what he was trying to say, but his unfortunate choice of words have led few to believe that the Haitians, 'had it coming.'

Then some prominent American conservatives thinkers, among them Rush Limbaugh, suggested that we had spent too much money on Haiti and that instead of sending any more money to Haiti, we needed to spend it here. From a political point of view, I can see thier point. And I would agree that the answer to this catastrophe does not lie with the American government. It lies with the church.

These tragic events in Haiti remind us of the potential of disaster at any moment. This tragedy could have happened in California or Hawaii, or Europe, or Africa...but it didn't. It happened in Haiti, a tiny nation that has reeled from one disaster to another. We could spend time asking, 'why there...' or 'why not here,' but such questions would be pointless. It happened.

The only question worth asking is: "what will we do now?"

As Christians, this answer is very easy, "Whatever we can!" While each individual Christian may not go to Haiti or even contribute to the relief effort, we as the Church have a responsibility to make sure we are present in the effort to save lives and to rebuild Haiti.

Here is an opportunity for us to see the Gospel in action and an opportunity to share God's Love and God's Word with people who may not know it. If the Church ignores Haiti at this point, it will be a tragedy beyond the power of any 'pact with the devil.'

The Gospel is about God rebuilding His world. He restores fellowship with people through the atoning death of his Son Jesus Christ. Those who turn in faith to Jesus are saved from the penalty of their sin and have the privilige of not only sharing the Good News with others, but also of helping to demonstrate God's kingdom here on earth.

Jesus was not really interested in protecting one country's wealth at the expense of anothers. Jesus is not interested to see one person become wealthy while others starve. Jesus was about taking care of others in need (Luke 10:25-37).

We can look at what is happening in Haiti and either give into despair or look to God in hope. I believe that this is a time when the Church must put the gospel into action. We must ignore the rantings of Pat Robertson and the narrow interest of the American wealth, and, as the Church, reach out to Haiti and offer them the true love of the God as well as the true Word of God.