I’ve heard lots of graduation speeches in my time. Some have been good. Most, I’m afraid, were a bit boring. I remember one, however, was disturbing.
The speaker was the valedictorian. He stood up to the podium and he thanked his father. Which sounded good -- at first.
“My father taught me an important lesson,” the young man said. “He told me throughout my entire life that I am the most important person in the world.”
Over and over through his speech, he talked about how true it was that he was the most important person in the world.
He looked out at his fellow students and told them, “Don’t ever think that there is anyone more important than you. Do what you want to do, not what other people want. Your happiness is all that matters.”
I sat there and thought about how this is the attitude that is destroying our society.
It was Timothy McVeigh who thought of himself first, and on his own decided that he had the right to plant a bomb at a government building in Oklahoma City that took the lives of so many people, including a number of children whom McVeigh callously described as “collateral damage.” He died self-centered and self absorbed and never showed any remorse at all. His last statement was a hand written note that included words from the 1875 poem ’’Invictus,’’ which concludes with the lines: ’’I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.’’
It was Jeffrey Dahmer who thought only of himself when he became a cannibal and a murderer.
And it is not just these extremes we are talking about. It’s the rage we see and sometimes feel when we are in traffic. We honk our horn and blow at people to get out of our way, because we are the most important person on the highway.
It is the root of the rudeness we see on the golf course or the grocery store because other people are meaningless to us because we are the most important person in the world.
It is the destructive element in our marriages. Husbands and wives make little effort to be giving and gentle to one another because “I am the most important person in the world. My happiness is what counts. No one else matters.”
Yet, the Lord’s Prayer contains that wonderful phrase that calls us to live a life that is not self-centered, but God centered. “Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”
It is a prayer that Jesus prayed more than once. At a different time, and using different words, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “If you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
And it was not God’s will to take away that cup. Christ had to take that cup. Christ willingly carried that cross. Christ accepted the will of God over his own self-interest and allowed himself to be nailed to the cross.
Would you have carried the burden of that cross?
Would you have carried the burden of other people’s sins and punishment?
Most of us hold fast onto our will rather than God’s will.
The self-centered life says, “I am the most important person in the world.”
The God-centered life says, “God’s will be done.”
There are several problems with the self-centered life.
First, a self-centered life is out of focus. Most of you have seen the wonderful images from the Hubble Space Telescope. From the far reaches of space, we’re able to see God’s most breathtaking creations. Do you remember that in the beginning the Hubble Space Telescope was not the wonderful machine that it is today. After lots of excitement, the telescope was launched several years ago and the first images were blurry. There was a flaw in the mirror. It was a terrible disappointment. That problem was later corrected, but at the time there was a joke making the rounds that said the only thing NASA learned from the Hubble Telescope was to never name a project that rhymed with “trouble.” It was a huge embarrassment.
The self-centered life is just like the early years of the Hubble Space Telescope. It makes everything out of focus so that you don’t see truth and reality – you just see a blurry image of it.
The self-centered life makes you think that you are the most important thing in the universe – but you’re not.
The self-centered life prevents you from understanding the needs of others.
And yet, our very nature causes us to be self-centered rather than God centered. Would you, like Jesus, have carried the burden of that cross?
Probably not.
Most of us do not pray, “Thy will be done.”
We think in terms of “not thy will, but MY will be done.”
The second problem with the self-centered life is that it is ultimately a dangerous life.
The story is told of an ambitious farmer, unhappy about the yield of his crops, he heard of a highly recommended new seed corn. He bought some and produced a crop that was so abundant his astonished neighbors asked him to sell them a portion of the new seed. But the farmer refused. In his self-centeredness, he was the most important thing in the universe. Nothing else mattered and he was afraid that if he shared with his neighbors he would lose a profitable competitive advantage. So he refused.
The second year the new seed did not produce as good a crop, and when the third-year crop was still worse it dawned upon the farmer that his prize corn was being pollinated by the inferior grade of corn from his neighbors’ fields. Had he shared the seed, his own corn would have been protected.
Would you have shared the seed with your neighbors?
Or are you the most important thing in the universe?
Would you have carried the burden of that cross?
Is your prayer, “Thy will be done.”
Or is your prayer, “not thy will, but MY will be done.”
The third problem with the self-centered life is that it is ultimately a losing proposition. Jesus said in Luke’s Gospel (9:23-25) "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
While this is always about a spiritual reward, it is often reflected in a physical reward as well.
In its January 25, l988 issue, TIME magazine provided an insight on the dangers of selfishness and the rewards of sharing. Addressing the introduction of the videocassette recorder, which was still new at that time, the article said, “Sony Incorporated had made a crucial mistake. While at first Sony kept its Beta technology mostly to itself, JVC, the Japanese inventor of the VHS format, shared its secret with a multitude of other companies. As a result, the market was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the VHS machines being produced.”
This drastically undercut Sony’s market share. The first year, Sony lost 40 percent of the market, and by 1987 it controlled only 10 percent.”
It’s now a couple of decades later. If you have any Beta size videotapes, good luck in finding a machine to play them. The way Sony tried to selfishly control the video market has relegated its Beta-format to “the consumer-electronics graveyard.” Even in a cutthroat business, sharing has its rewards.
What would you have done? Shared or not shared?
Or are you the most important thing in the universe?
Would you, like Jesus, have carried the burden of that cross?
Is your prayer, “Thy will be done.”
Or is your prayer, “not thy will, but MY will be done.”
In Ernest Gordon’s true account of life in a World War II Japanese prison camp, Through the Valley of the Kwai, there is a very moving story. It is about a man who through giving it all away literally transformed a whole camp of soldiers. The man’s name was Angus McGillivray. Angus was a Scottish prisoner in one of the camps filled with Americans, Australians, and British soldiers who had helped build the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai. The camp had become an ugly situation. A dog-eat-dog mentality had set in. Allies would literally steal from each other and cheat each other; men would sleep on their packs and yet have them stolen from under their heads. Survival was everything. The law of the jungle prevailed...until the news of Angus’ death spread throughout the camp. Rumors spread in the wake of his death. No one could believe big Angus had succumbed. He was strong, one of those whom they had expected to be the last to die. Actually, it wasn’t the fact of his death that shocked the men, but the reason he died. Finally they pieced together the true story.
The Scottish soldiers took their buddy system very seriously. They believed that it was literally up to each of them to make sure their buddy survived. Angus’s buddy was dying, and everyone had given up on him, everyone, of course, but Angus.
He had made up his mind that his friend would not die. Someone had stolen his buddy’s blanket. So Angus gave him his own, telling his buddy that he had “just come across an extra one.”
Likewise, every mealtime, Angus would get his rations and take them to his friend, stand over him and force him to eat them, again stating that he was able to get “extra food.” Angus was going to do anything and everything to see that his buddy got what he needed to recover.
But as Angus’s buddy began to recover, Angus collapsed, slumped over, and died. He had died of starvation complicated by exhaustion. He had been giving of his own food and shelter. He had given everything he had—even his very life. The ramifications of his acts of love and unselfishness had a startling impact on the compound. “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12).
As word circulated of the reason for this man’s death, the feel of the camp began to change. Suddenly, men began to focus on their mates, their friends, and humanity of living beyond survival, of giving oneself away. They began to pool their talents—one was a violinmaker, another an orchestra leader, another a cabinetmaker, another a professor. Soon the camp had an orchestra full of homemade instruments and a church called the “Church Without Walls” that was so powerful, so compelling, that even the Japanese guards attended the worship. The men began a school, a hospital, and a library system. The place was transformed; and love and concern -- which had all but died, was revived, all because one man named Angus gave all he had for his friend. For many of those men this turnaround meant survival. What happened is an awesome illustration of the potential unleashed when one person actually gives it all away.
Would have been able to see beyond yourself and your own needs and to look at the needs of others?
Or are you the most important thing in the universe?
Would you, like Jesus, have carried the burden of that cross?
Is your prayer, “Thy will be done.”
Or is your prayer, “not thy will, but MY will be done.”
Referring again to the ninth chapter of Luke, there is a strange saying that Jesus has. “If anyone would follow me he must take up his cross daily and follow me.” That is a strange thing to say. In our present age, it is like saying, “If you want to follow Jesus, you have to have a seat in the electric chair.” Or – “If you want to follow Jesus, you have to enter death row of a prison, lay down and receive fatal injections.”
That’s what the cross was back then. It was not a religious symbol. It was simply a tool for executing someone.
What does Jesus mean here?
It means, you have to be willing to put God first. And other’s second. And yourself third.
Ultimately, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer that is what we are praying for. That we would have the ability to do what Jesus did – to take up the cross and suffer for others. That we would do anything we could possibly do, even die, for others.
Because contrary to that disturbing graduation speech I told you about, you are not the most important thing in the universe and neither am I. God is more important. Love for neighbors is more important.
Can you pray that prayer? Can you ask that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven?
Or are we too selfish? Do we mistakenly believe that we are more important than God?
Copyright 2005, Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
www.Pittendreigh.com
