But Isn't Loving Yourself Selfish???

Many Christians have a very difficult time loving themselves well.  Some of this difficulty may be connected with negative experiences earlier in our lives - experiences of not being valued, cherished, honored by others who were important to us.  We were given the message that we were not love-able.

But some of the difficulty may also be connected to the assumption that Christians, by definition, do not love themselves.  They love others.  If you love yourself -- according to this line of thinking -- you are being selfish and sinful.  This way of thinking understands Jesus' comment (in Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27) to be "love your neighbor more than you love yourselves."  Or even, "love your neighbor instead of loving yourselves."

But Jesus - quoting Leviticus 19:18 - says, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  We are to love our neighbors as though we were in their place.  Love your neighbor the way you love yourself.

If we treat ourselves poorly -- if we neglect our own needs, if we ignore our own dreams and passions -- then we will likely treat others poorly, as well.  We will be far more likely to resent our neighbor, to feel like we are being such holy martyrs, and we will not be much fun to be around.  Others will be able to sense that we are not loving them whole-heartedly and joyfully and genuinely.  We shouldn't be surprised if they don't appreciate it when they sense that we are thinking, "I am only loving you because I'm supposed to.  Now you better be grateful!"

The question is, What does it look like to love yourself well?

love God. love neighbor. love yourself.

This blog will be a place for conversation and reflection about what I call the "three-fold guideline for life."  A highly-educated person once asked Jesus, "Which commandment in the law is the greatest?"  (In our day, we might say, "How can a person live well?  How can I have a meaningful life?  What's the most important thing?"  In Jesus' day, this person talked about 'the greatest commandment.')

In response, Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."  (There will be no throwing out your brain, and just mindlessly following orders with Jesus.)  He then immediately went on to say, "A second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"  (If you want to read the text in the Bible, you can go here.)

Some people may say this is a two-fold commandment -- love God, love neighbor.

But I believe Jesus' commandment is three-fold -- love God, love neighbor, love yourself.

All three are crucial.

If we leave out any one of the three, our lives will be impoverished.

When we pursue all three, our lives can be grounded, joyful, and strong.

Some of the time, we need to focus more of our attention on God.  Other times, we will find that we are not giving enough attention to our neighbors.  And there will also be times when we will find that we are not giving enough attention to ourselves - to our dreams, to our own needs, to our own passionately held convictions.

We've gotta be doing all three.  That's what we'll be doing with and through this blog.  Come along and join the fun.

Let's Go!

Let the adventure begin.  I'm rather late to the whole blogging scene, but am excited to be here.  (Better late than never...)  For those of you who have been blogging for years now, I'm glad to be among you now.  For those of you who - like me - have held back from blogging, let me invite you to jump in, too.  (If I can do it, believe me, anyone can.)  Let's go!