Why People Don't Have to Be Like Us // How to Get Over Yourself and Live a Life That Counts, Part 6

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

You know – life would be so much easier if everyone saw things my way and did things my way – don’t you think? Problem is that the world’s just not like that – and if we’re not careful, that can drive us nuts!

Great to be with you again at the beginning of a brand new week. There's something about Mondays you know. People talk about Mondayitis as though Monday's the beginning of another week. So what's the alternative, not having another week to live out our lives? No, I love Mondays. For me it's a great opportunity to catch up with you again, here on the program.

Now last week we were chatting together about getting over ourselves. Because there are so many people who spend their lives pandering to their own whims and desires and fancies. And you don't have to live too long to realise the rest of the world doesn't quite see things our way.

The rest of the world doesn't want us to be happy, by and large. Oh the glitzy advertising for this and that that drags us over here and over there, it may seem to promise us happiness but they don't want to make us happy, they just want our money.

And people, friends, family, work colleagues, the number one item on their 'to do' list, quite often, is not making us happy either. And so many people become all bitter and twisted in life because we're kind of programmed to make ourselves happy. And the rest of the world won't play the game. So this week we're going to continue looking at how to get over ourselves so that we can actually live out a life that counts.

And I can tell you, when I was out there to please Berni, when that was the number one item in my whole life, the thing that most drove me nuts is that other people weren't playing to my agenda. They weren't there to please me. In fact what really annoyed me was that they were different and they saw the world differently. They behaved differently and they had different priorities.

And that's the problem when we expect the world to revolve around us. Other people end up driving us crazy. I've always been someone to think and act and move quickly. I recently wrote a book on personality types with my good friend and colleague Keith Henry.

Keith's been studying personality types over the last couple of decades now and as he came to know me better he began to understand my personality and his comment was, "I've never met anyone like you in all my years of doing this. With this personality type combination that you have." (That always makes you feel good, like a freak). He said, and these were his words, "It's like your personality is on steroids."

And I guess that's a fair description. I love grabbing the bit between my teeth and getting out there and doing things and achieving things. That's me and I guess we need people like that in this world but imagine, imagine for a moment if everyone was like that. Now that's a scary thought.

And in a sense, in those earlier years of my life, when life was about me, when the universe revolved around me, it used to drive me completely nuts that other people weren't like me. Why can't they get with my plan? Why are they moving so slowly? Why can't they just get out of my road? Why can't they just see it? It's the way we're going, come on!

And so I lived in this self righteous maelstrom of achievement and self gratification, a toxic combination if ever there was one. And I rolled over the top of people. I berated those who didn't measure up to what I saw as being my standards.

That's my story but however we're wired on the inside we can end up with a similar attitude. The gentle hearted person, sensitive to other peoples emotional needs. That person can become very bitter and twisted and withdrawn and depressed when other people aren't sensitive to their emotional needs.

They read things into situations that don't exist. They think worse of people. They end up wallowing in their own emotions because other people don't care. Other people aren't like me. Now that's the complete opposite of who I am but they end up with the same problem, the same outcome.

Who I am and my needs and my view and my attitudes, everyone should understand that and pander to that. Well guess what? The world's not like that is it? And so we need to learn how to get over ourselves so that we can live a life that really counts.

Now the Apostle Paul is a great guy, he's so insightful. He deals with exactly this problem. And through him God gives us an answer for dealing with this. Have a listen, it comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning at verse 13. He writes:

For in the one spirit we're all baptised into one body, Jews and Greeks and slaves and free and we were all made to drink of the one spirit. Indeed the body doesn't consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, 'because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body', that wouldn't make it any less part of the body now, would it?

And if the ear would say, 'because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body', that wouldn't make it any less part of the body either. If the whole body were and eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

But as it is Gods arranged the members of the body, each one of them as He chose. If all were a single member where would the body be? As it is there are many members yet one body. The eye can't say to the hand, 'I don't need you', nor the head to the feet, 'I don't need you'.

On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are in fact indispensable and those members of the body that we think less honourable, we clothe with great honour and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect. Whereas the more respectable members don't need that.

But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior members that there maybe no dissention within the body but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it. If one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And Gods appointed to the Church first Apostles and then Prophets and teachers and deeds of power then gifts of healing and forms of assistance and forms of leadership and various kinds of tongues.

Are all of you Apostles? Are all of you Prophets? Are all of you teachers? Do all of you work miracles? Do all of you possess gifts of healing? Do all of you speak in tongues? Do all of you interpret? Strive for the greater gifts and I will show you a more excellent way.

In other words, of course we're all different people. That was always God's plan. What's the matter with you? Just because I'm this and you're that, that's no excuse for us getting annoyed with each other. Why? Because I need you just as much as you need me. You can do things I can't and I can do things you can't. And unless we have each other, we're nowhere.

Get it! That's what Paul's saying and that's what God's saying to you and me today through the Apostle Paul. You know there are people who encourage others and show compassion and stick with those in need in ways that I never could. And those people tend to move a tad more slowly than I do and think about, if they didn't they wouldn't hang in there and show compassion to all those who need it.

Imagine if we didn't have them in this world. And when I complain about them and belittle them and reject them, as I used to do, I'm just demonstrating pride and arrogance. I'm saying, "I don't need you." But what Paul's saying, what God's saying to me is this. Yes you do. Are you nuts? Of course you do. What's the matter with you? You can't do this all on your own. You can't.

That was always God's plan. You just can't do it on your own, we need others. And it was when I finally realised that I needed these other people, I was able to get off my high horse. It was the deep realisation and in fact a humbling realisation that they can do things I can't that finally helped me to get over myself and begin to discover the still more excellent way that the Apostle Paul talks about.