Day 140

Contemporary societal wisdom tells me that I must first love myself before I can love others. That is to say, I must have enough love for myself in order for any excess to overflow to others. I would submit that without first loving others, I will never have enough love to satisfy my own needs. Think about it -- Christ said that the two greatest commandments in Scripture are to (1) love God and (2) love others as I love myself -- I am never actually told that I must love myself. In fact, the latter commandment is predicated on the idea that I already love myself, and therefore I am commanded to love my neighbor the same way I love myself. The truth is, if I try to love myself enough, I will never have enough -- human nature always wants more and we are never satisfied with the amount we have of whatever it is that we have. Thus if I focus on loving myself enough first, I will never have any excess to share with others because I will always need to hoard more for myself. And of course I can't ever give myself enough because of the aforementioned human nature, so I will try to get others to love me to supplement my need. However, if I demand love without giving any first, I will not receive any. So I say that I must first love others as I want to be loved. Spread that around enough, and enough will eventually come back to me from the people I have loved first.

Things That Make Me Say, "I Don't Get It" #5: Why do we so often treat our greatest blessings as if they were our greatest burdens? I would like to think that the entities that bless us the most require effort to maintain, and that it’s the personal investment that we make in maintaining those entities that give them importance in our lives, which in turn gives them the potential to greatly bless us. But too often we focus only on the efforts required, losing sight of the blessings, realizing how much of a blessing they were only after we’ve already given up on them. I hope to never treat my blessings that way, yet I know I will. I don’t get it.