I’ve been talking about how you can find adventure, persevere through difficulty, and find your strength. There’s just one problem here. All I’ve been talking about is you. Yes, I’m here to help you, and I want the best for you. But, the honest truth is that the best thing for you is for you to not focus on yourself. You need to go beyond yourself. I’ll explain.
When I say “go beyond yourself” I mean that we need to fix our perspective outside of our own lives and step out to serve others. Go beyond your own desires, your own goals, your own good to help others.
The Self-Focused Hero
I recently watched the movie Shazam. I thought it was a great movie, but I also think it proves a powerful point. The first half of the movie he’s obsessed with himself and how cool he is. Sure he may save a few people, but his intentions are out of selfishness and obligation. You can easily tell he doesn’t care about others. His motives change in the second half of the movie and he starts risking his own life for the sake of others. He doesn’t think about himself nearly as much and therefore can do truly heroic things.
It’s the same with us. Yes, we want adventure and to live a life of meaning, that’s all good. However, you shouldn’t find your war and fight it simply because you want adventure or because you want other people to see you as a hero. You fight because you see the need and because you care more about the needs of those you are helping than you do about your own wants.
Go Beyond Yourself and Your Life
I hear people always interpret the Bible to fit their own lives. Though it’s good to apply God’s word to our lives, we need to go beyond ourselves. What if we read the Bible to focus on God, not just what we can get from him? What if we prayed because we simply wanted to talk to him? This life you have is not given to you so you can make your own name known. It’s entrusted to you so you can make God’s name known to a hopeless world.
It’s so easy to have a selfish approach in our relationship with God. As we are fighting our hard battles we ask him to give us victory, but what if God has different plans? There’s nothing wrong with asking God to give you strength to complete the task before you, but we should always remember that it’s not about us succeeding, it’s about God’s name being known. Sometimes God did rescue Paul from Prison. In the end, however, God allowed him to be killed in prison. God has his timing. We need to go beyond ourselves to seek his will above our own.
Those Who Serve are True Heroes
In American culture we like dominant leaders who tell others what to do. They are the people we look up to. If you look at history we see the same trend reflected. However, if you look at the greatest villians you will also see that they are dominant leaders also. It’s not about being a leader, or telling others what to do, it’s about serving those around you. Leaders can serve too. Jesus is the greatest example of this. He changed the world, and he did so by going beyond himself to love others.
That’s what we need to do. Stop caring about yourself and how others will see you and just do what will help others, even if it puts you at a disadvantage. It might not make the news, but you are making a difference and the world will be better because of it. If no one else recognizes what you did and the huge sacrifice you made, know that God sees it. “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:3-4).
If it get’s hard always trying to go beyond yourself, make sure you have a solid anchor to keep yourself going. If you don’t know what your anchor is, check out my blog Find Your Core Anchor
What are some ideas you have that help you go beyond yourself?
