It is not all about ‘ME’
A few years ago my friend Rick Warren wrote a best seller that opened with the line, “It’s not about me.”
The theses builds a case for not being a self-centered “me first” personality. Instead, he sought to define a fulfilling life as one lived to please God and serve others.
Today if a sequel were written it might very well be entitled, “It is all about ME.”
For a number of years children have been reared in a culture where they are absorbed in social media. They play e-games where all the choices are theirs. Selfies are the norm. Texting is the new language. This is likely to produce a mutant generation with thumbs several times the normal size.
Thus, they develop a mentality where they are in charge, the choices are theirs. Along comes an authoritative figure such as a parent who tells them what to do and they can’t compute it. Without necessarily saying it their response is “what are MY choices? The decision should be mine.” Seeing this, a slightly older generation has joined the club.
Parents of young children often cultivate the “options mentality” by saying, “Now sit down, OK?” If there is no choice, don’t let the little darling vote.
Local exhibit “A” of “I and I only am authority” is the current search for a president of Kennesaw University. A senior at the university asked, “Do I get to talk to (the finalist)? If we don’t get to do that, I can promise you they will have an uphill battle.”
Government by representation has been fundamental in our national government and civic organizations since the inception of the nation. Order is essential for there to be progress.
That student’s assertion defies the established order involving a representative body collectively making the choice of a president. The long standing order of that university and others is for a selection committee to do the interviews and vet a potential president.
This is by no means only a current attitude nor is the outcome unknown historically. The darkest day in the development of ancient Israel is described as a time “when everyone did that which was right in their own eyes.” The inevitable is anarchy, disorder, and disillusionment.
There is a fundamental struggle in America and most don’t know its basis. It is between those who believe in absolute truth and universal moral values and those who believe everything is relative and subjective and “I am the subject” who gets to choose what is right or wrong.
The “me first” society is rapidly replacing a long standing system of values. Since the nation’s inception there has been a quasi-Christian civil religion which checked some of our society’s worst impulses.
However, a broad coalition of forces has emerged whose intent, as former President Obama said, is to “fundamentally transform America.” Those forces are more advanced in their intend than most realize.
A statement by Wendell Philips, often attributed to Phillip Brooks, frames a life well lived: “How prudently most men creep into nameless graves, while now and then one or two forget themselves into immortality.”
Such can never be said of an “Icentric” person.
Consider this as your standard of life: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2: 3-5 ESV)
The Rev. Nelson Price is pastor-emeritus of Roswell Street Baptist Church in Marietta and a former chairman of the Shorter University Board of Trustees.