Do you ever feel as if no one really wants your opinion on anything, and the best thing you can do for yourself is just to shut up?
Do you ever turn down invitations to parties, picnics, or other celebrations because you know you'll have nothing in common with anyone?
Maybe not. Maybe I'm alone in this, but somehow, I don't think so. Our message in church last week was about the parable of the Good Samaritan. Samaritans were a hated, looked-down-upon people back in Biblical times. The story goes that a man was travelling on foot and thieves intercepted him, robbed him, and beat him to a pulp. As he was lying there bleeding, first one priest and then another passed by him on the side of the road and didn't do anything to help the guy. Then a hated Samaritan came by, saw the man, and jumped into action. He bound up the man's wounds, put him on his own donkey, and took him into town. He paid for the man's lodging and care until he could swing by the hotel again. He told the hotel staff to take care of the man and charge whatever they spent to him.
Many sermons on this topic focus on seeing people in need and helping them instead of ignoring the problem. And that's a good focus. But the sermon I heard emphasized the word "focus"-- focusing on others instead of ourselves. Being loved by God frees us up to focus on others. The priests who passed by were not necessarily bad men. So what happened? Perhaps they were so focused on whatever sermon they had to give that day or whatever meeting they were heading to that they just didn't SEE the bleeding man.
How many times do we focus on ourselves instead of others? Believe me, I know how hard it is sometimes to get out of our own skin. After all, we live with our own bodies, feel our own pain, think our own thoughts, and experience our own emotions 24/7. That's a lot of input to process. But if we turn our pain and our thoughts over to God and let Him handle our lives, then maybe we can focus on someone else.
So I realized that when I sit around and "navel gaze," I turn inward on myself. I start thinking those things that cut me off from other people: that no one cares about my pain, that no one wants my opinion, that I have nothing in common with anyone. The truth is, GOD cares about all of that. And since He cares, I know He will take care of me. I can stop worrying that
my emotional needs won't be met. I can look up from my navel and look out at everyone else.
