Fighting the "Me" Trap

Erma Bombeck (one of my favorite prophetesses), commented wisely in a newspaper column I clipped more than thirty years ago:

“During the last year, I have dissected my marriage, examined my motives for buying, interpreted my fantasies, come to grips with midlife, found inner peace, outer flab, become my best and only friend. I have brought order to my life, meditated, given up guilt, adjusted to the new morality, and spent every living hour understanding me, interpreting me, and loving me. And… you know what? I am bored to death of me.”

The results of being egocentric instead of Christocentric are boredom, lack of fulfillment, and a bad self-image. It stands to reason that God’s creatures living in God’s world, sustained by God, intended by God to live for God, will be pretty miserable divorced from God.

In his book titled The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis wrote about sin coming between God and humanity. He believed that the remarriage of God and man through Christ’s death and resurrection brought reconciliation between the divorced parties. Yet some Christians seem to flirt with the world for the rest of their lives, thus falling into the “me trap” and putting their relationship with God on hold.

God says that reconnection with Him will never be boring, for at His right hand are “eternal pleasures” (Ps. 16:11). Those who have experienced this relationship will tell you that its pleasure will far outweigh any transitory pain.

How, then, do we get out of the “me trap”? We can start by asking the Lord to lift the steel spring and set us free. Christ has the strength not only to liberate us but also to keep us free! But first we have to recognize that we have made the choice to follow Satan’s deception, to eat the cheese he offers. We can start by looking at our reaction to suffering. If we ask angrily, “What is this trouble doing in my life?” we have not realized that the trouble we are suffering is acceptable to the Lord and therefore should be acceptable to us. If we continue angrily fighting against what God has allowed, we are well trapped into an attitude of mind that can only add to the trouble that has already invaded our lives!

Look to the Lord for a relationship of reconciliation that will keep you far from the “me trap.”