It’s All About Me--Not

When Galileo began studying planet Earth in the 1600s, the understanding of most learned men was that the earth was the center of the universe. After all, Aristotle had declared this to be so back in 4 BC and Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer,  confirmed the idea 600 years later.

I am reading Galileo’s Daughter which is actually a biography of her father. His older daughter, Virginia, was a nun in an abbey near Florence and father and daughter carried on a voluminous correspondence during his lifetime. Unfortunately, all his letters to Virginia were apparently destroyed upon her death as Galileo was in deep do-do with the Inquisition fellows because of his scientific ideas, specifically that the earth moved around the sun. Hence, the title Galileo’s Daughter because much of what the biographer was able to deduce about Galileo came from the comments in his letters to which she answered.

All the above is chasing a rabbit trail but functions as an introduction of how I want to explore this earth-centered, me-centered idea that permeates our culture. Much better writers than I have written books and articles on the idea of “it’s all about me.”. But it all boils down to one word: Selfish.

At an earlier date I wrote about selfishness, but I ask you, tongue in cheek, could not this very ugly trait be blamed on that learned philosopher, Aristotle and his idea that the earth was the center of the universe? If this statement became ingrained in human intellectual DNA, would it not then be plausible that I am the center of my personal universe? (This is another disgusting characteristic of our culture: the Blame Game, but I’m not going there today.)

I think self-ish-ness could almost be classified as instinctive behavior per this example from my two-year-old son. He came home from the church nursery one Sunday morning proudly announcing, “Me seffish!” Apparently, he declined to share some toys and was reprimanded by the nursery worker. 

Unfortunately, self-ish-ness doesn't disappear along with  childhood and it goes beyond sharing our “toys”. I can remember my mother telling me I was selfish (this comment emerged during those dreadful teenage years) and I remember mentally shrugging off her words thinking “I don’t remember not sharing anything.” Obviously, I hadn’t matured enough to realize that self-ish-ness really means to be self-centered, not considering others. In other words,it’s all about me.

Jesus Christ, our Creator, our Savior and the One who loves us unconditionally, wants us to realize that our first priority is to worship Him. He tells us plainly in His Word, more than once, that He wants us to love Him with ALL of our heart, soul, mind and strength. That would mean total surrender and obedience, totally focusing on Him, leaving no room for self-ish-ness. 

So, swimming up the stream against a strong current of modern culture added to my personal self-ish-ness, I tell myself, once again, “It’s not about me. It’s all about Him.