And it's still not about me

Learning that 'sometimes it's not about me' has only continued. The other day while I was sorting through old mail, I found the following quote from culture is not optional's "daily asterisk" that reinforces my sense that me should not be the focus: "Today’s grads enter a cultural climate that preaches the self as the center of a life. But, of course, as they age, they’ll discover that the tasks of a life are at the center. Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly. Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it’s nonetheless true that life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some task. The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself." David Brooks "It's Not about You." in The New York Times

Furthermore, I heard an illustration this past Sunday during the sermon on Jesus' feeding the five thousand that reinforced the sense I had that it wasn't about what I can do but about what God can do. When the pastor during pre-marriage classes asked a young woman about a Bible passage which appealed to her, she hesitated to mention this passage on the feeding of the five thousand, as it seemed to have nothing to do with marriage. When she spoke in amazement of the abundance in the passage, the pastor gently asked her if she was worried about whether she would come up too short in her marriage. And we who had heard the story knew the answer. With our own five pieces of bread and two fish, there is no way that we wouldn't come up short. But with Jesus, what would never be enough on our own strength, would actually be abundance - twelve baskets left over.