Self Interest

I realize I just put a post down but I had a little urge to continue writing tonight about a little problem I have called self-interest. It was Kinlaw in his book, "The Mind of Christ" who said that the root of all sin is self-interest. I'm not sure if that is true in every single case we point out but most of the things that run through my mind do seem to point back to the fact that sin is about the betterment of ourselves rather than the betterment of God's Kingdom or the people who reside in it, wish to reside in it, or have no idea of that Kingdom. So that is why I continually find myself in a seemingly unending tragic circle of sin that seems to pour out of my heart. (That may be a slight exaggeration but you get the point and we are a species of sin) For example, my biggest problem with sin at school is the fact that most of the worship, study, or prayer to God comes from the curriculum and guidelines of Johnson Bible College. I worship in chapel 3 times a week. I open my Bible to study for classes, and the majority of the time I pray is at the beginning or end of class. Now I'm not saying that those are bad things, but I think that my personal devotion to God suffers when it is all required and I simply don't take the time to immerse myself in the great mystery that is God's Love. 

You see there are sins omission and commission. It's pretty to figure out which sins fall into what category. Either we omit something from our lives and its not there and it is sinful to not have it there like a respect for parents, keeping the Sabbath Holy, truly worshipping God. Then there are the sins we commit like murder, stealing, adultery, or worshipping false idols (like a grade for instance). So at school I find myself in a path of serving myself interest by looking for the grade or by not going into a true personal time with God and I see myself serving self-interest. 

You see it is a pattern that we all get into and it is all about the fact that we are more concerned with our story than the story of God. You all get a little preview into what I will be preaching about next week in chapel. You see it comes from Louie Giglio's book "I am not but I know I AM," which is all about us becoming less to glorify God. I think that John the Baptist said it best when he said, "He must become Greater, I must become less." I can't help but think that the reason most of us go through our lives continually wanting more and not truly being happy is because it is impossible as long as we serve self-interest. We were created in the image of God, not be be god. And if we take that message to heart, if we truly see our purpose in life to be a child of God and to bring glory to his name then we have lost self-interest. We have immersed ourselves into something greater that is called the Story of God, and only being a part of that story will we find true happiness. A happiness that comes from being a part of something that has no beginning and has no end. Something that stretches forever throughout time and we, by the Grace of God, are humbly allowed to leave our mark upon it. 

So to sum it up my goal this semester is to pull myself out of the never-ending perpetual sin we call self-interest, which in itself is a portion of almost all other sin. Will I completely succeed? No. But that shouldn't stop me from finding my spot and being a part of the Story of God. That shouldn't stop me from beginning to find time with God where I don't care about grades, I don't care about knowing more, but where I simply take time to be immersed in the Word, and be immersed in wonder of the mighty God.