Day 2367 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Philippians 2:3 NIV

We're so used to this idea of putting ourselves first that we don't even realize that it's not really doing anything for us. A selfish life seems like it's exactly what we want. After all, when we're the ones calling the shots and setting the priorities we can line things up just how we want them. But if we're being honest, what does a life focused on ourselves accomplish? What difference does it make? If all we ever do are things that benefit us then we're the only ones that get anything out of it. And while that may sound amazing, in the end we're going to be surrounded with everything we've ever wanted but no sense of joy or fulfillment.

I really do think that selfishness is the new drug of the masses. We get all excited thinking about what we want and who we want to be. We find this thrill in chasing after things that make us feel important or check off the next box on the list of must-haves that we've come up with. It allows us to take all of our time, energy, and focus and place them squarely on what we want. We spend our days building ourselves up and doing or saying whatever it takes to make ourselves look good. We ignore everything and everyone else because we need as much time as we can get to keep building our own little kingdoms where everything centers around us.

But don't we realize that the walls of those kingdoms are only closing us in? The time we spend putting ourselves first or focusing on making our lives more comfortable is time that we could spend doing something that matters to more than just one person. But before we notice it, if we ever notice it at all, we're completely sealed off inside our little castles basking in the glory of everything we wanted without anything that we really need.

That's one of the biggest stumbling blocks in our world today. Want vs. Need. We want a lot of stuff, but in reality we need very little. We want people to like us but we don't need their approval. We want to be comfortable but we don't need worldly things to do it. We want to feel important but we don't need to focus on ourselves to feel that way. Maybe we need to shift our attention from what we want to what we need. And when we do, when we realize that we don't need as much as we thought, well then we'll have even more time to spend helping those around us.

Here's another hurdle that I know so many struggle to get over. Sadly we live in a place that's so bent toward self that we doubt that we can make a difference. What can one person do? What impact can one person have when it seems like everyone else is going the other way? But we can't allow doubt to keep us from trying. We can make a difference. Even if it's small, it's still important! Anything we do to help just one person matters. It matters more than we know. If 100 people do something for themselves alone then those 100 people are going to benefit from it. But if 100 people each do something for 1 other person, then 200 people are involved. The impact doubles!

As hard as it may be, we have to turn our attention outward. I know that putting ourselves first seems almost natural. And having all spent time living with ourselves as the main priority, it can be hard to change. But our world is going down hard. You don't have to look very long to find someone who's hurting, some problem that people are facing, some spot where a little kindness would make a huge difference. It might not seem like we can do much when we consider the massive problems that we're up against. But retreating back to a life focused on us definitely won't change anything. We will never know what we can do until we try.

If you really want to feel important, do something to help someone else. We have to stop worrying about the size of the impact and just focus on doing what we can when we can. A smile cutting through a sea of glares means something. A kind word speaks louder than a chorus of angry ranting. A willingness to listen means more than knowing the right thing to say. It may seem almost counter-intuitive but putting others before ourselves helps us more than we would ever imagine. Seeing someone else smile, lifting their spirits, and leaving them better than we found them is more valuable than anything else that we could be chasing after. And who knows, we just might find some of that joy and sense of fulfillment that we've been looking for along the way.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold