A dog thinks: Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a nice warm, dry house, pet me, and take good care of me. They must be gods!
A cat thinks: Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a nice warm, dry house, pet me, and take good care of me. I MUST BE A GOD!
And so, we conclude, CATS are narcissistic. And because of the catlike 'me-ism' of our human generation the word NARCISSISM has become familiar. The dictionary defines it as "inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity. SYNONYMS: self-centeredness, smugness, ego-centrism."
George Bernard Shaw wrote a great play about Joan of Arc, how she left her home and inspired the French people to battle against their English conquerors. In one scene young Prince Charles is complaining because Joan, obedient to her heavenly vision, has rebuked his softness and cowardice. With no desire to be a hero, he cries out, "I just want to be just what I am. Why can't you mind your business and let me mind mine?" The peasant girl, in her fanatical zeal replies, "Minding your own business is like minding your own body; it's the shortest way to make yourself sick. What is my business? Helping mother at home. What is thine? Petting lapdogs and sucking sugar sticks. I tell thee it is God's business we are here to do; not our own. I have a message to thee from God; and thou must listen to it, though thy heart break with the terror of it."
Often we Christians, laying aside preoccupation with ourselves and wanting Jesus to be first, must say to those around, "It is God's business we are here to do. You must listen to God's message though your heart break with the terror of it."
Proverbs 18:1,2 exposes our self centeredness with these probing words: "He who separates himself seeks his own desire, he quarrels against all sound wisdom. A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own mind."
The Christian faith extracts us from mere inner determinism and selfcenteredness to the greatest of all outward causes, namely, that of exalting Jesus Christ, His way and His Word above all else, especially self. Jesus said, " “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me" (Luke 9:27).
Happy is the man who has a cause greater than himself. Jesus gives us that!
-dick christen
