Page 15 - WOTS_86_ Cebu

THE PROBLEM WITH CHASING OUR OWN WELL-BEING

et’s consider for a moment just how much of
our day is spent thinking about ourselves.
We think about the meals we’re going to
L have for the week, whether or not we’re
getting enough exercise, and how our personal
relationships are doing. While we’re at it, we obsess
over our physical appearance, the future of our
education or career, and the current state of our
mental health. Is all of this concern helpful, or is
it exhausting?

On one hand, it’s a good thing to take care of the body,
mind, and soul God has given us. It would be wrong to be
intentionally lazy about our health and hygiene. However,
if we perpetually overindulge in ourselves, we start to give
off a spiritually selfish stench. This condition is lethal
because, “Self-focus,” author Sharon Hodde Miller writes in
her book Free of Me, “hurts our relationships, shrinks our
1
faith, kills our confidence, and ultimately steals our joy.”

Ironically, God says that the best way to take care of one. We can have both in Christ.” We accomplish this not by
ourselves is to put Him first and others second. “Jesus said to carefully balancing all the cares of our life, worshipping God,
him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and loving other people like stacking a house of cards. Rather,
with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and all we have to be concerned with is one piece: putting Jesus
great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love first. He promises that when we “seek first the kingdom of
your neighbor as yourself,’” (Matthew 22:37-39, NKJV). Our heaven of God and His righteousness all of these things shall
own well-being is most satisfied when God consumes our be added to you” (Matthew 6:33, NKJV).
thoughts, and sincere joy comes from uplifting others. But
because our default setting is selfishness, it takes serious Putting God first is not like a vending machine where we put
effort to reorient our thinking. in the right amount of devotion and in return receive perfect
health, great relationships, and our dream career. Those
The tension between taking care of ourselves and not things may happen or they may not. Rather, the well-being
obsessing over it can be tricky. Hodde Miller continues, we’ll really receive is the forgiveness of our sins and a close,
“Thankfully we don’t have to choose between fulfillment and incredibly real relationship with Jesus. If we don’t have that,
self-forgetfulness or between abundant life and the obedient none of the desires matter.

1
Miller, H. S. (2017). Free of Me: Why Life Is Better When It’s Not about You. Baker Books.
WORD ON THE STREET MAGAZINE 15