From Me to We
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
––Galatians 6:2
God’s men put others’ needs before their own in virtually all cases. (Except maybe for that “secure your own oxygen mask before assisting others” thing on a plane.) When we first became a Christian—especially if it was when we were a child or teen—it was about “me.” That’s natural. We were offered this gift that seemed too good to be true: eternal life if we said “yes” to Jesus. We took the fire insurance because we did not want to go to the fiery place. As we matured, however, we realized that to continue to grow in Christ, we needed to switch from a “me” to a “we” mentality. And that’s where some of us get stuck.
If you’re dragging around a lot of rocks in a sack from your past it’s really hard to move from me to we. We know in our minds that we have baggage that keeps us stuck—trauma and wounds that cause us to medicate the pain rather than heal it. In order to move from the “me” phase we need to acknowledge that “we” cannot do this on our own. Once we are able to both confront and surrender our demons to the care of God, we get unstuck. I’ve seen this miracle happen over and over again in men everywhere.
When God’s man truly surrenders—and keeps surrendering—the junk in his trunk, he continues to grow. This is not a “maybe.” In God’s kingdom, growth for those who pursue the Father is a given. It’s a dynamic, like gravity. Sure, sometimes it’s three steps forward and two steps back. But if we don’t quit, we win. That’s when the “power of we” takes over our life; that’s when other men enter in and we hold each other accountable. We realize that a Lone Ranger approach gets us nowhere and the walk of faith is exponentially strengthened when “it’s no longer about me.” We trade that me-focused fire insurance for a life Insurance policy that never expires and pays eternal dividends.
Father, help me move past a “me” faith into fellowship and maturity in Your Son.