Sorry I haven’t been posting more often… classes started last week, and I’m still using this Mac, which isn’t xanga friendly! Anyway, this article of mine was published in October of 2001…

I coined a new word this summer. At least I’d never heard it before. Meism. (me-ism). That’s what I’ve started calling the mind-set of people who are prone to think that they are the center of the universe. Well, maybe not the universe, but at least of everything around them.

You know the type that I mean. Someone who goes to a meeting so that everyone there can hear what they have to say. (Wait a minute! There have been times that I’ve done that.) Well, how about those who get up on stage in plays and stuff so that everyone will see them? (…I’ve done that, too!) OK, let’s talk about those who sometimes ask God to help them get what they want. (Now hold on! This was not supposed to be about ME!)

The truth is, we are all prone to a little ‘meism’. Most of us have been so blessed by living in this land-of-plenty that we assume it was all put here just for us! With apologies to JFK, we seem to say, ‘Ask not what you can do for your country… ask what your country can do for you.’

Many of us today have never experienced a real time of need. Our lives are full of such abundance that even our poor and destitute seem far better off than people in some other countries. Many of our ‘downtrodden’ have only one car or one TV, and we feel bad for them and try to help them all that we can. The truth is most of us, from the ‘Baby-boomers’, to the ‘Gen-X’ers’, thru the ‘Millennials’, could all be classed into one homogenous crowd – the ‘Me” generation!

When I first coined the term ‘meism’, I was applying it to the problem that I sometimes have with trying to superimpose my wants and desires onto God’s will, and onto His plan for my life. As hard as I try to be open to Him and His direction, I still have to question everything that I do to determine if I’m doing it for Him or for me. And I’m sure that that is a problem for everyone from time to time. But, it seems that our entire lives have become self-centered!

“It’s a dog eat dog world.” “Never give the other guy an even break.” “Winning is not the main thing…it’s the only thing.” These are all sayings that we’ve heard, and probably repeated, over the years. And while we may have meant them as humorous at times, the underlying reality was always there.

Let’s face it! This country has been built on the rights and the abilities of the individual. As such, we have all been taught from birth that what we do with our lives is up to us. Whether we succeed or fail in anything that we do depends more on how we perceive ourselves than our abilities. Our world revolves around us… because all that we see of the world is that part which directly involves us.

At least that seemed to be the case for most people in this country until the morning of September 11, 2001.

As the walls of the World Trade Center in New York and at the Pentagon came down, so did the walls of isolationism that each of us had built around ourselves. Suddenly the importance of ‘ME’ gave way to the importance of ‘US’! Instead of “What can I do for myself today?” we began to hear, “What can we do to help?”

We were no longer Germans, Irish, or Dutch. We were no longer English, Pakistani, or Japanese. We were no longer white, dark, red, or yellow. We were all Red, White, and Blue. We were all AMERICANS! And further, we were no longer Baptist, Catholic, or Methodist. We were all part of God’s family!

Throughout the New Testament are references to God’s ‘family’. We are called sons and daughters, brothers and sisters…family! In Matthew 23:8 and 9, Jesus tells His followers…

                   8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. (NIV)

It is said that before the Civil War, this country was always referred to as ‘these United States.’ It was only afterward that we became ‘THE United States.’ In the hundred-odd years since, we have seesawed back and forth in understanding what the difference is. But in this time of unthinkable tragedy, we have let ourselves once again become a nation of united people. We have overcome our ‘meism’ for now, and replaced it with Patriotism.

At the same time, we have begun to realize that we are ALL part of God’s family, and of His ‘Master-plan.’ We have seen what we can do when we come together in His name. And we have begun to see that some of our ‘differences’ are maybe not as significant as we thought.

All of this is good and noble, but…we have been ‘individuals’ and ‘isolationists’ for a very long time. How long can we sustain this openness to work with others… to work for the common good… to be a part of God’s entire community?

Our world has changed! If we are to survive as a people, we must change with it. The idea of everyone working together to help one another must continue to be more than just an idea. It must be a reality. ‘Meism’ must not be allowed to be a part of our make-up. The cry of “One for all, and all for one!” may not be Biblical, but the concept is!

                         And it is a cry that we all must heed!!