3. Embrace Selflessness
Narcissism is a rapidly growing problem in our culture.
You feel the pull to make your life all about you. I feel the pull. And we see it all over our culture.
The Gospel offers a powerful counterweight to selfishness; it calls us to die to ourselves.
When Christians do this, amazing things happen.
A life defined by generosity and service to others (especially those in need) is increasingly attractive to a world suffocating on itself.
A life devoted to the Kingdom of God stands out in a world devoted to the Kingdom of Self.
The church is just as guilty as the culture when it comes to narcissism. We can get obsessed with ourselves as easily as anyone.
But the opportunity to live generous lives of service to Christ and to others is a tremendous opportunity. Those disciplines put flesh on love.
The more Christians sacrifice their own wants and needs for the sake of the Kingdom, the stronger the church will be.
There’s even a promise in that. When you die to yourself, something greater rises.
4. Deal Hope
You know what’s missing in the cultural dialogue these days? Hope.
We seem to do a great job focusing on the problem and pointing out the shortcomings and sins of others and very little time pointing toward a preferred future.
We’ve read to the end of the story. We know how this ends. Love wins. Faith wins. Hope wins.
Christian hope isn’t a pie-in-the-sky that floats above reality.
It’s as gritty as the incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection of the dead.
Which means our message and lives need to get into the grit of addictions, conflict, brokenness and the utter fragility of life and fight for hope.
As Bruce Cockburn said decades ago, you need to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight.
Hope that’s divorced from reality isn’t hope at all.
But hope that goes into the darkest places and cracks open a thin wedge of light that eventually floods the room is exactly what we need.
So deal hope. Real hope.
It’s what our hope-starved world craves.
