Monday, 3/9/2015

“I don't care what you think unless it is about me.” Curt Cobain 

DEUTERONOMY 8-10

God addresses the Israelites so that they will understand that it is God's grace and not their deeds that is the reason for their possession of the promised land.

6Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

MARK 12:28-44

28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^e 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^f 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^g There is no commandment greater than these.”

41Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

43Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.44They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

JOURNAL

Narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one's own attributes. The term originated from the Greek mythology, where the young Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water.

In both God's love of the Israelites and in all of Jesus' messages...it all seems to address this overarching issue of our own narcissism.  How we tend to place our own importance over any and all others.  One of the ways narcissism plays out is in using others for our own benefit...seeing them as an extension of ourselves. Then when they fail to meet our needs or fail to measure up to our expectations...narcissistic rage follows.

This is the culture we now live in...

Studies of narcissism have looked at the prevalence of the trait from both developmental and generational perspectives. A 2008 study of a nationally representative sample of US citizens used interviews to assess lifetime prevalence of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), the most serious form of individual narcissism. The researchers found that Americans in their 20s were three times as likely as people over age 60 to have experienced NPD in their lifetimes. Another approach compares real-time self-reports of narcissism among similar-aged people, such as college students, across several decades. This keeps the results from being skewed by age or distorted memory. These studies also show increasing narcissism. Traits related to narcissism have also increased. For example, younger generations are more likely to:

• rate themselves as above average on leadership and drive to achieve;

• score lower on measures of empathy;

• embrace life goals centering on money, fame, and image;

• set unrealistically high goals; and

• report higher levels of self-esteem.

The tendency to focus on the self, and to “show off,” is in many ways becoming a social norm. (Psychological Science, "Narcissism Unleashed")

What is the answer to fighting this trend.  I think we can always look to scripture...In loving God above myself and in loving my neighbor as myself, puts the focus outside of me.  This is completely counter-cultural, yet it is biblical and the complete authority on who we are and who God created us to be.  

6Who, being in very nature^a God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature^b of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

8And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8)