About whose life you live…

Luke 14:7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 "When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, `Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, `Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (NIV)

As you live your own life, whose life most concerns you? As you live your own life, whose failure most concerns you? As you live your own life, whose success most concerns you? As you live your own life, whose hurt most concerns you? As you live your own life, whose progress in life most concerns you? As you live your own life, whose freedom most concerns you? As you live your own life, to have a better and happier life, you must be able to always tell the truth. To have a better and happier life, you must confront certain truths to find your freedom. One of your most important jobs in your physical and spiritual life is to see how every person is born into a state of being doomed by in-born selfishness. When we fully admit and fully comprehend how we are selfish, then we can do something about our selfishness. When we do not fully admit and do not fully comprehend our selfishness, then our selfishness remains an invisible enemy against which we have no defense. Selfishness is at the root of sin. To free our soul from this eternal chain and slave master called selfishness, we must be honest about who we are and what we are. If we cannot admit we are selfish and we cannot admit we are a slave to our selfishness, we remain enchained and blind. Being enchained and blind, our life is then steeped in failure and doom. If we deny we are innately selfish, our denial puts a cloud of ignorance around our heart and mind. With a cloud around our heart and mind we are not able to truly see beauty, we are not able to truly see others, and we are not able to truly see God. When we turn away from our innate selfishness, an act we call repentance, the cloud around our heart and mind is lifted. When we turn away from our selfishness, we are able to see, perhaps for the very first time, the beauty of life, the beauty of God, and our own inner beauty Christ died to save.