Focus

There is a phrase that is strangely comforting to me. You wouldn’t think it would be comforting, but it is. Kind of like suffering leading to joy or sorrow leading to freedom – it’s a seemingly undesirable thing leading to a desirable outcome. It is not new, but it is revolutionary. The few times I can get it into my head, it changes everything. Here it goes:

It’s not about me.

Having life not be about me helps me to relax. I don’t have to be happy. I don’t have to get married. It’s okay if I miss out on things. I don’t have to solve all my problems because it isn’t about all my problems. It is okay if I am overlooked or taken for granted or misunderstood. I am freed to consider others better than myself because it isn’t about myself. It’s about something and someone greater than myself and better than myself and more worthy than myself.

Because it’s not about me, I don’t have to get back at people who mistreat me because vengeance isn’t my job. I don’t need pretty girls to like me because the Creator of those girls is more important. I don’t have to take responsibility for other people’s emotions because I am not the Savior. I don’t have to be perfect because my goal can’t be obtained by human effort. It’s okay if others see my imperfections because I’m not the one who is supposed to be worshipped. It is okay if I don’t get my way because I don’t know what is best for me anyway. It is not up to me. It is out of my hands.

Because this life will never satisfy me, I don’t have to put a pressure on it that it can never live up to. I can relax because something greater and permanent is yet to come. I can be still and know that God is in control while looking forward to the day when everything wrong will be made right and my deepest thirsts will finally be satisfied. And at the end of the day, I’m glad it’s not about me. It’s about someone whose thoughts and ways are much higher, deeper, wiser and better than my own.

What is it about is about taking up my cross daily, denying myself, giving God whatever glory may come my way, and losing my life in order that it may be found.

Oh the Wonderful Cross,
Oh the Wonderful Cross,
Bids me come and die
And find that I may truly live.

Category: Musings