“He’s the most selfish man in the
world.”
So said one man to another as they
walked by me. They were going in the
opposite direction so I never did find out the particulars. Who is “he”?
Why is “he” considered so selfish?
Why were they even talking about “him”?
I did wonder about the “in the world”
part. Out of nearly seven billion
people, “he” was the most selfish?
That’s a lot of people!
Of course, the gentleman speaking—maybe I
use the word “gentleman” loosely because a real gentleman probably wouldn’t
utter such a phrase—was no doubt using that time honored principle of
exaggeration to make a point. I suppose
we all do that at one time or another.
Jesus no doubt used a bit of exaggeration in his parables because that
was (and is) a way to make a point. As a
human race we seem to have come to the conclusion that “ordinary” is not
enough. We want more; we want flashy; we
want spectacular. So we like restaurants
that give us more; we patronize movies that rely on special effects; TV shows
must “push the envelope” (bad taste or not); politicians make promises they
could never keep; amusement parks and extreme sports must have an element of
danger or at least adventure. “Ordinary”
doesn’t make headlines.
We sometimes think that God can only be
found in the extra-ordinary. Not true at
all. While God can be extra-ordinary at
times, most of the time God is found in the ordinary. The Gospels contain a lot of information
about Jesus, but if His public ministry was three years (or even one year),
there’s a lot missing. And I would guess
there were a lot of “ordinary” encounters with people who found the “ordinary”
very meaningful and fulfilling.
Selfishness, however, is not very
meaningful or fulfilling (at least beyond the moment). I don’t know who the most selfish person in
the world is, but most of us probably think we know a candidate or two. Sometimes I think I’m in the running for the
title! But then I come back to Jesus; I
come back to Scripture; I come back to the collected wisdom of the Church and
remind myself that I wasn’t created to be self-centered. I was created to be God-centered and
other-centered. That doesn’t mean that
I’m not supposed to take care of myself.
If I don’t eat well, sleep enough, get some exercise, challenge my
brain, and find ways to de-stress at times, I won’t be healthy enough to be
God-centered and other-centered. That’s
true for all of us.
Have a healthy, God- and other-centered
week . . .
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