“It’s not about you”

One little phrase I’ve picked up in the last year or so is, ‘it’s not about you’. I don’t know really where, or when I started saying it, in fact I think it may even been before I started the race. Honestly, I think it started off kinda as a sarcastic statement. Not really trying to make any point or anything I would throw it into some random scenario for some comic relief. I could try to give you an example but I think it would probably be lost in the abyss of one of those ‘you had to be there’ moments.

Over this year though that little phrase has really started to gain some meaning for me. The fact of the matter is, that much of this year it’s been learning the truth of that statement… that it’s not about me. I could give you a list of countless times I haven’t wanted to do one thing or another, that I was tired and just didn’t want to go out to ministry. That I don’t like shopping and going shopping with the girls was the first thing on my list of ‘please no, ever’. Of moments that I felt ill prepared for something or feeling like I could have done something better. But, when it comes down to it that’s not the point.

It’s never been about whether I feel ready, or I desire to do something. It doesn’t even matter if I do a good job, or a crapy job. It isn’t about me. It isn’t about what I do or don’t do, where I go or don’t go, say or don’t say, it’s about Christ. Everything I do, everywhere I go, everything I say should be about Him. He is our focus, He is our aim. We desire to point to Him in our actions. Sometimes that may mean doing something big like giving the Sunday morning sermon, it may be doing something small like acting like a elephant to bring joy to some kids.

When something pops into my head that I know would be an act of obeying G-d nothing else matters.

Whether it is that still small voice in my head telling me to do something, or simply the acting out of feeding the poor or helping the needy, my aim is Christ. But, if in that moment I find myself beginning to think about what others think about me, if I begin to think of how embarrassed I may be to

sit next to the person no one talks to, or the moment I start to ask what the homeless man is actually going to do with my money, I’ve lost it. Because in that moment it has become about me again. About my money, my reputation, my comfort, my goals, my time, my dreams… as my

brother says ‘me me me I love myself I have my picture on my shelf’. We must go through a mind transformation to know every action we take is about G-ds dreams, His money, His reputation, His goals.