Day Twenty-Three

Day Twenty-Three // March 23 // The Roots of Selfishness

“The poison of selfishness destroys the world.” – Catherine of Siena –

Lurking in the shadows of Eden, born of the rotted fruit of that forbidden tree, selfishness stirs within each of us. In fact, it’s been said that the seed of selfcenteredness and self-seeking lies at the heart of every human sin. It’s there in pride. It’s there in lust. It’s there in rage, envy and deceit. It’s self-centeredness that prods us to wag our tongues with gossip. It’s self-centeredness that riles the waves of greed. Even now, the serpent’s intoxicating hiss beckons: you can be like God. It can all be about you. It should be all be about you.

But the call of faith, the call of Lent, the call of Gethsemane, Calvary and Christ begs something different; it begs something better. They summon us to a life lived for something bigger, to a life lived for Someone bigger… to the One who, moved with holy selflessness, prayed, “Nevertheless.”

It’s not a big word. Only a dozen letters. But in those 12 – one for every tribe of Israel, one for every apostle who’d move the world – Jesus showed us the way of faith – the way of real, life-giving, life-changing faith. In prayer, He had told God exactly what He wanted; then He said, “Nevertheless…” “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.”

In that place of utter humility, in that garden of complete surrender, our Lord modeled for us the life we’re all called to in faith: a life that’s not about us, a life that’s not about what we want nor what we feel entitled to. It is, rather, a life offered to God: to what God wants from us and what He wants for us.

Our selfishness, deceit and pride; our fear, apathy and laze; our addictions to drugs, alcohol, sex and work: they all constantly call out to us. Their seductive, selfsatisfying appeal drawing our eyes away from that place where our face is supposed to be set, drawing our face away from eternity. They entice our face away from Christ and away from the Kingdom we’re supposed to be building right here, right now. And all the forces of darkness would love to keep it that way: for us to think only of ourselves and of our own.

Nevertheless, freedom comes when we will fight against all that would bid us to settle. It comes as we push back against the spirits and the flesh that want only to indulge. Freedom comes as we accept that wonderful irony only God could pen: that it is only in selflessness that we will ever truly be free to be truly ourselves.