Losing myself, in bringing You praise...

My friend, who recently told me he's in "a rut", asked me to pray for one thing: that the lyrics of that song, "From the Inside Out", would become truth to him. That he would lose himself in order to bring glory to God; that as he went on missions, as he lived his life, he wouldn't look at himself, what he wanted, or what he thought was right, but would look to God first and foremost for everything.

Another friend made a xanga post sharing a similar struggle.

It is so, so easy to become caught up in ourselves. And I have a strong conviction that even when we think we're being selfless, we're actually being selfish. That more often than not, we are not actually being selfless; but we are being selfishly selfless. Putting others first because we think WE should be the ones serving them, or because we want to be the one receiving glory for helping others.

Similarly, I think it's very easy to be pridefully humble. "Oh, look at me! I'm so humble. That means I'm better than you." Even though I denied it, I think I often used to feel like this; that I was better than you, because I was selfless AND humble. What now! (kidding. well, that last part.)

To be honest, I think I see this in a lot of people. But it's hard to understand our true motives sometimes, since our thoughts and actions have (what seems to be) an infinite number of emotions behind who we are as human beings. Which is perfectly fine. But as with many things, I feel like we should be more aware of our faults and humble ourselves enough to admit these mistakes. It's easy for us to know what we're supposed to do and how we're supposed to think, but it's so easy to act that way simply because we are "supposed" to, not because it is out of a genuine love for God and his people. So let's take another look.

Tired. So that's all for now.