In Love With “Me”

Lovers of their own selves. ?2 Timothy 3:2

Self-love takes many forms. Not only pride and vanity and worldly ambition, but a preoccupation with one’s own troubles, physical or otherwise. Self-centered, ingrown souls make themselves the center of their universe. And they want to be the center of everyone else’s universe. Everything must revolve around them.

Self thrives on attention. It grows as it is petted and coddled, until it becomes a colossus dominating one’s lives and all others it can by making friends and loved ones the slaves of such self-worshipers.

The best cure for a self-focus is neglect by becoming preoccupied with something or someone else. The supreme preoccupation is not a mere person or cause but Christ Himself. That is why He asked us to deny self, take up the cross, and follow Him. That is why He bade us lose our lives to find them. When he fills our minds and hearts and lives other gods vanish. And no god is harder to topple from its pedestal than the “god” of self.