A couple weeks ago, I went to my church, then instead of Sunday school, I decided to shake it up a bit and go to the church next door. Our town has 5 churches right off the town square that are within spitting distance of each other. Anyway, not surprisingly, this sermon was exactly what I needed to hear. It was the Old Testament story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and how they stood up to King Nebuchanezzer. It ticked the king off and he threw them into the fiery furnace, but they came out without one hair on their heads singed. The sermon did not go where I thought it would at all. I thought we would talk about those guys and how they did right by God. Instead it was more about the King, and how self absorbed the guy was. And the preacher asked some tough questions. Who do we treat as god, self or God? What is our motivation for what we do? What we wear? Where we go? To impress others?
It just made me think. I know I have a problem with selfishness. I know it, but what do I do about it? Not much. But since this sermon, I've made a consious effort to try to focus more on other people, not just dinners with friends and such like I was trying to do, because, honestly, a lot of that is about me, but instead, praying for others, serving others, thinking about others situations and not my own. It's amazing the peace I've felt from it. Weird isn't it, when I quit focusing on myself and my imperfections and my problems and my issues and start focusing on others and fill myself with compassion and thankfulness rather than anxiety and me.
I don't mean it in a bad way, but I'm tired of me, tired of thinking about the same problems, focusing on the same things I see as shortcomings, tired of putting myself at the center of my world. I'm ready for God to be at the center, for Him to be the focus, for Him to motivate my thoughts and my actions. Like I said, I can already see a change in my thoughts and attitude. I look forward to more!
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