Turning the World Upside Down

These days I often see people posting various quotes on social media that are being put forth as wisdom, and they do seem wise at first look. Quotes like:

"Respect yourself enough to walk away from anyone or anything that no longer serves you, grows you or makes you happy."

Under the guise of self-respect, these quotes are encouraging us to love those who give us what we want, and walk away from anyone who doesn't. Now, from the world's viewpoint, that makes sense... why would I waste my time and energy on someone who hurts me, or who ignores me, or who only takes from me? However, digging deeper, this is a very self-focused thought, and misses the bigger picture. Even from a common sense view, if you take this thought to its logical extreme, parents would disown their children, and children their parents... husbands and wives would get divorced for any and every reason... homeless people would be ignored and left without hope on the street... friends would walk away from childhood friendships over silly arguments... in short, each person would only interact with another for what they could receive from them. There would be no love, only gain, in every relationship.

That, unfortunately, sounds a lot like the circumstances we see happening all around us in this world. What we need is not found in getting what we want from people or walking away from them... so that means there must be something else, something better. We need to turn the world upside down, to build relationships on love, rather than gain.

1 Corinthians 3:18 says, "Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become 'fools' so that you may become wise."

If this 'me-first' psychology, though it feels good in the short term, doesn't work, then what does? If the world's wisdom doesn't even make the world happy, then maybe we should look at God's wisdom.

1 Corinthians 1:25 says, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength."

So what is God's wisdom? How does he want us to treat others? Since He is worthy of the ultimate respect, did He walk away from anyone who no longer served Him, grew His fame, or made Him happy? Did He leave us to fend for ourselves?

Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

God didn't focus on what He could get from us in order to build a relationship, He focused on what He could give. Instead of asking us to fix the relationship ourselves, He forgave us, and did what needed to be done to fix the relationship Himself, through unconditional love and sacrifice.

This week, at Emmaus Church, Pastor Kip spoke on how we can keep our happiness through all kinds of problems, and something he said resonates with this topic:

"The reason most people are miserable is because they think happiness comes from self-gratification... but happiness actually comes from self-sacrifice."

So what can we learn from this? Self-respect doesn't come from being respected by others... it's separate from that, and that's why we can have self-respect and still show others forgiveness and work towards reconciliation. To be like Christ means to be willing to be disrespected, mistreated, cursed, persecuted, and return love. Yes, it hurts, but the only way to build a real relationship is to be willing to be that vulnerable. To love first, and longest. To hope beyond hope. To get our self-respect from the value that God put on us when He sacrificed everything for us. To turn the world upside down.