Another one of life’s seesaws

Socrates or Plato, not one knows for sure, once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living . . . .” I thought of this last week after a conversation with a person who said she was obsessing about her own mental and emotional condition. While Socrates or Plato may have had some wisdom, it seems obvious that there can be too much of a good thing.

However, I used to obsess about my spiritual condition, and sometimes still do. Most of that is caused by one of two things. Either I’ve not confessed and abandoned some sin in my life (known or not yet known), or I am doubting where I stand with God and my obsession reveals a terrible lack of faith.

Actually, there’s only a couple of places in the Bible that tell me to examine myself. One of them is 2 Corinthians 13:5. “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”

God wants me to make sure that I believe in Jesus Christ and that He lives in my heart and I have a personal relationship with Him. Knowing that for certain is not an issue now, but when I was a new Christian, doubt and poor performance on my part sometimes made me forget what God had done in my life.

Another exhortation to examine myself is in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 concerning instructions about taking Communion. It says, “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”

Simply put, I’m not to participate in the Lord’s Supper if I have unconfessed sin to deal with. God is not asking for perfection, but integrity. I cannot willfully or knowingly sin and then ‘honor’ Him by remembering the broken body and shed blood of His Son. This is hypocrisy.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that self-examination can be simply self-centeredness. The human heart can find all sorts of ways to justify this sinful focus on me, me, me. In God is Enough, the author points out how God is not pleased when we obsess in self-examination and make ourselves miserable about what we find, as if being constantly upset about our terrible sinfulness will please Him.

This was happening in Israel during the time of Isaiah. God asked those who were fasting and afflicting themselves, “Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?” (Isaiah 58:5)

The devotional writer says that instead of putting attention on ourselves by fasting (or by obsessing about our sinful condition), God “calls on us, as He did on them, to forget our own miserable selves and to go to work to lessen the miseries of others.”

Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, “Here I am” (Isaiah 58:6-9).

My mother used to say that no one can be truly happy unless they are serving others. She may have had these verses in mind. Any kind of self-absorbed thinking usually winds up putting me in the dumps. God never encourages this extreme.

Besides all this, self-absorbed thinking often contains the element of comparing myself with others. If the other person is less (in my opinion) I gloat (sin), but if they are more (in my opinion), I whine and feel threatened (also sin).

Just getting my mind off me and helping others does wonders. Galatians 6:2-5 says, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test (examine) his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load.”

When I read these verses, I hear: Help others—this is what Jesus wants from you. If you think you are a hot-shot, remember what you are like without Me—you are nothing. Such arrogance is self-deception. Look at what you are doing? Am I blessing it? If I am, be proud of that, and stop comparing yourself with others. I’ve given each person their own burdens to carry. If they cannot do it, you are to help them; otherwise, pay attention to what you are doing. Are you being obedient to me? That is the only self-examining that matters.

Jesus always amazes me at His ability logically deal with my nonsense. Certainly I need to pay attention to my own life and my spiritual condition, but when I get too wound up in it, He points me to the needs of others and tells me to get away from the mirror and do what I can to take care them.