It's not about you

Sometimes I wonder if Jesus could have saved himself a few words and rephrased the Golden Rule by saying, "It's not about you."

On my way home today, there was lots of traffic leading up to a red light. An oncoming car was trying to turn left through the jam, and the car a few up from me in my lane stopped to let him turn, since we were stuck at a red light anyway. The car behind me, seeing that we were stopped, zipped into the right lane to race his way to the red light, nearly hitting the poor left turner that our lane had tried to let turn. 

It's not about you. 

When I voted yesterday, I thought about the unemployed, the poor, seniors on fixed incomes, families living in homelessness, children who rely on free school lunches for nutrition, hopes for peace in our world, the ways that I am compelled and called to take care of my neighbors. I voted not for my own interests but for the interests of others, for the common good. 

Voting: It's not about you. It's about us. 

If there is one prevailing side effect of my faith in God, it is the understanding that I do not live for myself.  And everything I do has an effect on someone else, whether I intend it or not. 

And so, in faith, I see it as my responsibility to leave a gentle footprint on this earth, stepping lightly and humbly over the course of my existence, not trampling anyone or anything, letting go of myself, living in the awareness of my connectedness, dependence, and responsibility to my fellow human beings and all creation. 

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,  not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." (Philippians 2:3-4 NIV)

It's not about you.