Lent Day 3: Gods of Self

The human tendency towards being self-absorbed can only be quashed by total abandonment to God, what we Christians refer to as giving up of oneself. This is easier said than done, even for most Christians who claim to be living by grace . Thinking of God first, others next and self last? In a world where self-promotion is the default tool for getting ahead in life? In a world where the quest for self-awareness has morphed into a quest for self-fulfillment/happiness achieved only by putting oneself first?

Yet, putting oneself first is the sentiment that gave birth to the original sin. How then can we feel that we can ever truly be happy when we have essentially co-opted the root cause of the first sin as the root cause of happiness? Making gods of ourselves can make us feel good for varying lengths of time, but our feet of clay will dissolve and leave us unstable when the waters of life around us encounter the occasional turbulence, as they surely must from time to time.

C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity: “The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first-wanting to be the centre-wanting to be God, in fact. This was the sin of satan; and that was the sin he taught the human race……What satan put in the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could be like gods – could set up on their own as if they had created themselves – be their own masters – invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God.” And the rest is history, everything wrong with the world and even our acts of sin come from putting our desires ahead of God’s desires for us.

This is all well and good for those who don’t know or believe in God. Their ignorance may yet save them. The greater danger is for those of us who have experiential knowledge of God: who He is, what He does, how He operates, His infinite mercy and loving kindness – and yet are still disposed to putting Him first in some (or even most) areas of our lives and putting ourselves/desires/wills first in others – A partial submission, so to speak.

Let’s accept one truth: A way of thinking that was invented by satan can never yield true happiness for bonafide children of God. The choice is ours to make.