The Feel Good Factor

If the goal in life is to feel good as much as possible, the reality of life sucks. Its hard to stay encouraged, its easy to feel sorry for myself and whine about my life's conditions. Life is hard, and that sucks. It feels easier to try to escape into fantasy, to take the easy way out, to look out for number one.

But if the goal is to grow and mature, to become more Christlike, to bring glory to God by traveling the hard road and not being swayed away from our faith, then the difficulties in life are something to celebrate, something to give thanks for.

The question is, am I living for myself, or for something bigger than me? If I live for myself, then all that matters is how I feel at a given moment. If my story is part of a bigger story, than not only is my comfort not the crowning achievement of my life, but there is hope that the trials and tribulations, however great or small, can be redeemed, or at least used for a greater good.

Am I going to glorify myself, or glorify God? When I worship myself, I get frustrated easily, mostly because the rest of the world never seems to adore me the way I think I should be adored. The world is callous to my needs and wants, fickle to my demands, easily swayed from my magnificence. The world might play with me for a while, but inevitably moves on to the next shiny pretty thing. I am left to pout and commiserate with my ego over our lost importance.

I was not made for this. I was not made to worship myself, a created thing. I was created to worship the Creator, who really, honestly, is the only thing worthy of worship. If I live for that purpose, than what I have been given claims its purpose - to point to the Giver. My strengths point to His plans, my weakness points to His mercy. My interests, passions, desires illustrate his infinite creativity - the maker of an infinite number of unique human beings.

We are made in the image of God, yet we try to reduce God to our personal vending machine and fan club. God, the world, everything around us is reduced to the role of giving us pleasure or helping us avoid pain. We grow shallow and self centered when we worship ourselves. What follows is pettiness, grandiose ego, self righteousness, vindicting hearts, jealousy, manipulation, disregard. We become the frame of reference, the center of gravity, and really, we aren't made to handle such a position. We can't maintain it - we are not God, we cannot hold his position without royally screwing up. We are promised that it is good to be the created thing, that we are most ourselves when doing what we are made to do: worship God. Why can't that be enough for us???