Self-absorption and submission pondered...

In visiting with many friends in many places and looking at the struggles they face, I have been struck lately by how universally difficult relationships within Christ's church seem to be in this fallen world.  Why is it our most difficult situations are often not from enemies outside the church, but from brethren within?  As I have been pondering this, I can across this passage in what promises to be an excellent book: Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (Resources for Changing Lives) by Paul David Tripp. 

In our self-absorbed culture, we need to see the grandeur of this [God's] kingdom.  We cannot shrink it to the size of our needs and desires.  It takes us far beyond our personal situations and relationships. The king came not to make our agendas possible, but to draw us into something more amazing, glorious, and wonderful than we could ever imagine...
~p.4

This left me pondering my own self-absorption, and wondering how many of my relational problems with my brothers and sister in Christ are more a matter of self-absorption and personal agenda than they are matters of the glory of Christ and His kingdom.  Tripp continues:

As we listen to eternity, we realize that the kingdom is about God radically changing people, but not in the self-absorbed sense our culture assumes.  Christ came to break our allegiance to such an atrophied agenda and call us to the one goal worth living for. His kingdom is about the display of his glory and people who are holy. This is the change he came, lived, died, and rose to produce.  This is the life and work he offers us in exchange for the temporal glories we would otherwise pursue.  This kingdom agenda is intended to control our hearts and transform our lives.
~p.5

And as I pondered this, I came across the following video with Randy Alcorn that just seemed to dove-tail with all these thoughts.  The darkest time we experience is the alienation of losing the support and love of our brothers and sisters in Christ, but that is not an excuse for abandoning them and moving on.  There is submission and lack of self-absorption to be learned there.

I will keep pondering these thoughts, and working out my salvation with fear and trembling.  May you be on that same journey, Gentle Reader.


What is the darkest or most difficult experience you have had to date? from Randy Alcorn on Vimeo.


HT: TC