It can be About Us

I don't know the statistic, but I do know that a significant portion of Jesus's teaching focuses on the topic of money- love of money, management of money, use of money, giving of money and the list goes on. Today so much emphasis has been placed on the topic of God that many Christians are perceived to be impractical. Christians feel good about the need to be "all about God" because it gives us a false sense of holiness and Godliness. To some extent, we self condemn the moment we entertain some selfish thoughts because we tell ourselves, my motive is wrong. It should have been all about Him and not me. 




I challenge that strongly because of the self-righteous frame. You know, I believe, rather consciously, that it is perfectly fine to let things be about us also. When we declare so confidently that it is always about God, it brings to remembrance one of Jesus's question to His disciples toward the end of His ministry: "can you drink from the cup that I am drinking from?"

So often we damn ourselves for being ourselves- I'm sad, but I'm a Christian, and I should be filled with joy. Oh I should repent!

It sounded like a flawed understanding of our position in this relationship. Take for example, the relationship between a parent and his child. Asked why do you want to have children, and the subsistence community conveys the message of reliance, of security. The earthly model, for a long time, put together this need for insurance. Parents have kids so that the parents would be taken care of in their old age.

Yet the heavenly model which I know about differs so starkly from this: God made men for His own glory, but He raised men and guided men for the good of their own lives. It's about the men. God remains in the picture, but by His grace, men share in that picture. By His love for us, He even sacrificed Jesus for us. "For us" makes us the purpose for what He did- ie. the story is very much about us too.



It would be foolish to then think that this thing is all about us. For it is also mentioned in the bible that we ought to deny ourselves, pick up our cross daily to follow Jesus. Clearly, it is not "for us" as well. I don't mean to confuse, but I earnestly yearn for a complete understanding of where we stand. Extreme stance has handicapped many down the generations with the former deemed to be too rigid or intolerant, and the latter too indulging. 



I dare not say I know it full well and I'm definitely right about this. What I dare say is that the God whom I know is gracious enough that His grace extends beyond the human aspect of us whom He has made us to be. I'm not running against Romans 6, in fact I'm a strong proponent of not abusing God's grace. So no, I'm not saying indulge in our sins, I'm not saying we live by our fresh, I'm not saying anything that runs against the course laid by the Word. What I'm saying is this: 1 Corinthians 8. There is a certain degree of allowance for us to live in that fullness of life, and as much as Sabbath is made for man, and not man for Sabbath (Mark 2:27), we ought to live in similar manner too. We pursue purity, we pursue holiness, we pursue love, we pursue God, and can I suggest that at the end of the day, the design is as such only because God knows that those are the good things that will benefit us at the end of the day. The purpose is us through and through~