Regarding the worship of self, look to God’s Word in Luke 9:23-24, “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.’”
Ever wonder where the words “narcissism” and “narcissistic” come from? They come from Greek mythology and are based on the name of a young man named “Narcissus.” There are several variations of the story, but the gist of it is that when Narcissus first saw his reflection in the water, he fell in love with himself. And the more he gazed into his own reflection, the more in love he fell…with himself. In the end, unable to tear himself away from his own reflection, he died from lack of food and water. Some versions of the story say he drowned…others say he took his own life. Regardless of the details, his infatuation with himself ended up destroying him.
Now, we all know that the story of Narcissus is just a myth, but “narcissism” is very real. In fact, about a year-and-a-half ago, a research study spanning from 1982 to 2006 revealed that today’s college students have never been more self-centered! 16,475 college students completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI). And what the researchers discovered, they believe, is directly traceable to the self-esteem movement that emerged in the 1980s. We’ve spent the last 25 years teaching kids to sing, “I am special. I am special. Look at me. Look at me.” (to the tune of Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, Dormez vous? Dormez vous?) that we’ve created a culture that fuels and encourages the self-centeredness that already exists within each of us. (source: Associated Press, David Crary, "Study: College Students More Narcissistic," http://hosted.ap.org/ [2-27-07])
The Times of London ran a story early this summer that would be funny if it weren’t so disturbing. The first paragraph read: "The stage was set, the lights went down and in a suburban Japanese primary school everyone prepared to enjoy a performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The only snag was that the entire cast was playing the part of Snow White." The school cowered to the parents who forced teachers and administrators to admit the injustice of selecting just one girl to play the title role. They all wanted their children to have the title role…so everyone was Snow White! No dwarfs…no other characters…just 25 Snow Whites running around. I’d like to have seen that just to see how they pulled it off…I doubt they did.
But Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Talk about cutting cross-grain! Jesus’ words fly in the face of those who wish to worship at the Altar of that Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I! Of course, most people would never admit to such as that…but I did read of one woman named “Sheila” who’s made up her own religion and named it “Sheilaism.” I’m not kidding. She’s had a group on Yahoo Canada since 2002. And it has a total membership of 3…evidently Sheila’s unholy trinity of me, myself, and I are the only ones interested in being “Sheilaists”!
But I was saying that most people—especially Christians—would never admit to worshipping themselves, but behavior says otherwise! Jesus wasn’t speaking in abstract terms when He said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” He knew that in our base nature that we are selfish creatures. And as long as we live as though life were all about us, we’ll never seek God’s grace and forgiveness! That’s why I’m saying that worshipping self is perhaps the most dangerous idolization of all! If anything will keep you from eternal life through Christ, it’s the refusal to forsake the idol of self!
Ever wonder where the words “narcissism” and “narcissistic” come from? They come from Greek mythology and are based on the name of a young man named “Narcissus.” There are several variations of the story, but the gist of it is that when Narcissus first saw his reflection in the water, he fell in love with himself. And the more he gazed into his own reflection, the more in love he fell…with himself. In the end, unable to tear himself away from his own reflection, he died from lack of food and water. Some versions of the story say he drowned…others say he took his own life. Regardless of the details, his infatuation with himself ended up destroying him.
Now, we all know that the story of Narcissus is just a myth, but “narcissism” is very real. In fact, about a year-and-a-half ago, a research study spanning from 1982 to 2006 revealed that today’s college students have never been more self-centered! 16,475 college students completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI). And what the researchers discovered, they believe, is directly traceable to the self-esteem movement that emerged in the 1980s. We’ve spent the last 25 years teaching kids to sing, “I am special. I am special. Look at me. Look at me.” (to the tune of Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, Dormez vous? Dormez vous?) that we’ve created a culture that fuels and encourages the self-centeredness that already exists within each of us. (source: Associated Press, David Crary, "Study: College Students More Narcissistic," http://hosted.ap.org/ [2-27-07])
The Times of London ran a story early this summer that would be funny if it weren’t so disturbing. The first paragraph read: "The stage was set, the lights went down and in a suburban Japanese primary school everyone prepared to enjoy a performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The only snag was that the entire cast was playing the part of Snow White." The school cowered to the parents who forced teachers and administrators to admit the injustice of selecting just one girl to play the title role. They all wanted their children to have the title role…so everyone was Snow White! No dwarfs…no other characters…just 25 Snow Whites running around. I’d like to have seen that just to see how they pulled it off…I doubt they did.
But Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Talk about cutting cross-grain! Jesus’ words fly in the face of those who wish to worship at the Altar of that Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I! Of course, most people would never admit to such as that…but I did read of one woman named “Sheila” who’s made up her own religion and named it “Sheilaism.” I’m not kidding. She’s had a group on Yahoo Canada since 2002. And it has a total membership of 3…evidently Sheila’s unholy trinity of me, myself, and I are the only ones interested in being “Sheilaists”!
But I was saying that most people—especially Christians—would never admit to worshipping themselves, but behavior says otherwise! Jesus wasn’t speaking in abstract terms when He said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” He knew that in our base nature that we are selfish creatures. And as long as we live as though life were all about us, we’ll never seek God’s grace and forgiveness! That’s why I’m saying that worshipping self is perhaps the most dangerous idolization of all! If anything will keep you from eternal life through Christ, it’s the refusal to forsake the idol of self!
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