Imitating Christ's Humility
"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like mided, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." - Philippians 2:1-11
So to me this verse is very hard. I struggle very heavily with people pleasing. It has reached a significant all time high as of recent. On one hand you can say, people pleasing is making sure everyone else is happy so it's a very selfless act, right? Wrong. It has very selfish motives. In my needs to be more in community, which I still am really not very sure how to do, I've somehow switched on my people pleasing button without being aware. Motives behind, If I can please everyone then I will win them then I will be in community, in the midst making my spiritual life and my real relationships suffer as well as losing my true self.
The hardest part, career wise, I am now doing what I love. My finances are doing better and I'm seeing fruit in my trusting in that area. So why does having gratitude to God make me feel farther from him. Do I need to constantly be struggling to be close to him? I don't want to not need him anymore because he's answered my hearts cry. Not saying that I don't need him anymore but it does seem like all the areas that I needed his help in most where it felt like he was not even hearing my cries he's come through in full and blessed me way beyond what I asked for. Am I just used to always needing in that certain way and now that I need him in a different way, I don't know how to ask.
I need to be selfless in my community, not really sure what that looks like. The only things I can think of are trying to people please and then when it doesn't work out I get mad and then since I'm mad that I'm people pleasing I start rebelling. It's a vicious cycle.
So my questions is, Are we being like-minded as a community with Christ, and if some of us are struggling how is a loving, selfless way to help one another out?
3 comments:
Great blog baby, you really hit the nail on the head and you got me thinking.
Babe-
I think the best of us struggle with people-pleasing, because all of us want to be accepted and loved. I think I struggled with it for a long time, although I might not have called it the same thing. Being in community is hard, period. Not everyone will like you, period. It's a fact I know I always skirt around. I don't know if I have any answers to the question of how to be in community, but in my short experience, I would say that all you can do is be yourself, put yourself out there for others to see and appreciate as most will, be open to trusting people enough to let them know about your weaknesses and your fears as well as your joys and your strengths, and the rest you just roll with the punches. I believe there is a wealth of friendship waiting out there for you - you are loveable and good and worth being friends with. Says me :) Love you!
you long for a deeper life...well that is exactly what god is doing...taking you deeper. your life is beginning to sound more stable and after living a long life of instability, it probably feels a little foreign to you, dear one. enjoy the stability. god is close to you even though you don't feel so needy. enjoy the mystery of him and his amazing gifts to you.
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