Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
July 19, 2007 (Thursday) – One of my blogs was about Saturday trips to the movies as a child (Saturday As A Child – June 16). Looking back on the serial adventure features and thinking about heroes like Gene Autrey, Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy, or comic book heroes like Batman, one thing sort of stands out in my memories: the good old sidekick of the hero.
Gene Autrey had Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette). Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) had “Windy” (Gabby Hayes). Roy Rogers had Pat Brady (and, in sequence, Smiley and Gabby). Batman had Robin. Superman had the clueless Jimmy Olsen. You get the idea. All these sidekicks had one thing in common: they made the hero look strong, wise, and good. And along with that, they made you laugh. It was standard procedure to have a sidekick “dummer” than the star.
Actually, the men playing the sidekicks were intelligent, talented people in their own right. But they played the part as it was written, and everyone knew they were not the heroes, even though in almost every movie or feature, they managed to save the hero’s life.
Now…my point. Ready? Some people think they need to make the people around them look bad so that they can look good. They are ready in an instant to make a cutting remark or make fun of someone. They fancy themselves the most important persons present in any gathering, and they see to it that no one looks better than they do.
They try to look strong and don’t seem to realize their main problem is their insecurity. They don’t feel all that good about themselves, so they cut others down to make themselves look better. There are many of these people around.
Christ wants to help you know yourself and be yourself. He wants you to be honest and open about who you are and how you feel. This is not always easy for us, because this godless world system is always pushing us to do exactly the opposite.
This is a problem in the business world, but it is also a problem in homes and churches.
Jesus chose twelve young men to learn from Him. They were not his sidekicks to make Him look good. They were his friends, and He was there to help them do greater things than they had ever done. He wants us to follow His example.
Here’s the way the Apostle Paul put it :”Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.” *
——————————————————————————————————————————————-
*Philippians 2:1-11 “The Message” translation:
“If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care, then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death and the worst kind of death at that, a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth, even those long ago dead and buried will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.”