This principle speaks to the foundation of the way I approach my life. When I mention purpose, it's more than a Rick Warren slogan or a new program to put on. It has got to be a way of life with me. It's my daily struggle.
What is this struggle? To choose Purpose or to choose Ego. I equate Ego to what the Apostle Paul calls the Flesh. In Romans, he clearly writes about the duality of man-- the Spirit and the Flesh. Purpose is living or walking in the Spirit (Rom 8). It's choosing to be His servant-- so it's not my "purpose." It's His.
So daily, hourly, minute by minute, I can choose to walk in Ego. Or I can choose to walk in His purpose. What then is Purpose? I would have to do the math for you and it would loose the meaning. It's certainly easier at times to identify what's Ego. When I look after my own needs or wants ahead of my wife or children. My needs ahead of His.
Now this certianly differs from the conventional "Christian" thinking of today. You can think about your needs-- that's okay! It's your "wants" we have to scale back-- control-- minimize.
No. If you have chosen to be His Disciple, you have died. You have now been risen to serve Him (see Romans 6). I get into trouble when I try and control the Ego. Or minimize. There's only one answer to the Ego. Death. I cannot assauge it, educate or control it. If I do that, then I walk in the Ego.
Sure, I have lived my life saying "it's not *that* bad." At least I'm not an adulterer! Or a drunk! A little Ego is the same as a lot of Ego. Or as Kerry Livgren so aptly said on the set of "The Imposter:"
You have two barrels-- one of fine win, the other sewage. Take a spoon of fine wine and pour it into the barrel of sewage and you've got... sewage. Take a spoon of the sewage and put it into the barrel of fine wine and you've got... sewage.
My friends, the Ego is sewage. A little bit will still ruin the whole barrel. So determine to kill it. Daily.
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