How to Kill the Me Monster

rfaville — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:28:21 GMT

For this week's cultural adventure I bring you mewithoutYou. Now I'm going to be honest - you're probably not going to like the music. However, think of listening to the song on the right as an exercise in being open-minded. I mean seriously - you just have to sometimes eat your vegetables. So why in the world am I bringing this to your attention? There's a great line in the chorus of the song that says "If I become the servant of all, no lower place to fall" with the background chorus of voices saying "I will be your servant". The song tells a story of a man who becomes self-centered, and how to cure the man the person in the story becomes. It speaks of the "me monster".

So I remember last week Beau asked some peeps about what he should write a post on, listing some topics to us. One of the topics was on the selfishness of our generation. And Beau wrote up a sweet piece on it, teaching us we must seek after the character and likeness of Jesus so that we may not become like the world around us has.

Let's be real for a sec - this is a topic that everyone struggles with on a daily basis and I am certainly no exception to the rule. Everywhere we go we are inundated (swamped) with advertisements, sales, and gimmicks trying convince us that not only are we the center of the universe, but that what we have already is not enough. It's almost like the "me monster" is the expected end result in such an environment.

I just started going through the book of Isaiah yesterday, and oh - it's good stuff believe you me. In Isaiah 6 we see Isaiah being called by God to be His voice to the people of Israel. It starts off with stating "In the year King Uzziah died.". King Uzziah was a well-liked and popular king of Judah. He did many things to protect and build up the nation of Judah. And Isaiah, like many of the people of Judah then, had his eyes on Uzziah and not on God. He trusted in the king perhaps a little too much. So when King Uzziah died, much of Judah was in despair and in uncertainty. But it took the King's death to get Isaiah's eyes off of men and unto God.

In Isaiah 6:8 we see the response of Isaiah whose heart has been changed by God. A person who has been changed by God becomes the instrument of God, the servant of God. Isaiah says "Here am I. Send me!" Notice the change - Isaiah was concerned with other things until he finally set his eyes, his mind, and his heart on God.

How do we kill the "me monster"? It's simple - we become aware of the presence of God in our lives (esp. in the details), and then we serve. Things really do change perspective in our lives when we realize we need to be getting in on the story of God and stop trying to write our own story. Isaiah saw he was a nobody before the throne of God. And his response was "Holy cow. This isn't about me, God what can I do to get in on the story you're writing?"

I encourage ya'll to ponder those ideas this up and coming week - "How can I become the servant of all? What are you doing God right now? And how can I get in on it?" Seriously think about 'em. And I promise you - the answers will wreck you up one side and down the other. But it will be a glorious wrecking indeed.

Matthew 20:28

All Good Things Have to Start Somewhere

rfaville — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:01:22 GMT

So here's the scene: on the map to the right, if you look really, really closely in the 2nd window from the right an intense scene is under way. There seems to be quite a party in my office, with joy and laughs passing to and fro amidst the repairing of laptops and the building of websites. Trying to think of a topic to write about and then to proceed in writing that topic under these circumstances is pretty stinkin awesome actually. It's like I have to learn to chew gum and walk at the same time. I'm terrible at multitasking, but there's always room to grow.

So that's where I'll start - there's always room to grow. We as Christ-followers must be willing to get our grow on, to get our learn on. Galatians 5:22 brings to mind all kinds of ways we can do that. I highly recommend taking a peak at it once in while. I'm not gonna lie - it's sweet.

I'll keep it light for the first post. But except to see more of me on here alongside Beau-licious.

Bloggin with Beau - Yeah. I like the sound of that.

Peace.

Richie's Blog

How to Kill the Me Monster

All Good Things Have to Start Somewhere