Saying "No" to yourself

I'm something of a news junkie. I watch several news broadcasts before I leave for work in the morning, and visit a number of news and commentary web sites in the evening. The one bad thing about being a news junkie is that you are exposed to a lot of bad news. I could list the events of today, but they would soon be pushed aside by a new set of a discouraging or evil news. If you want a list of negative headlines, just go watch the evening news for whatever day you read this post.

Many people, from a wide variety of viewpoints, want to stem the tide of evil, corruption, and just plain bad news that seems to engulf our world. They propose striking at any number of root causes-poverty, racism, education, immorality, and pretty much anything else you can name. Some of these efforts are incompatible, and the fights between the proponents of those viewpoints creates more bad news.

I think there is a root cause for all of these problems. Yes, I said all of them. OK, I'll make an exception for natural disasters, but even the way we deal with those can exhibit what I'm about to discuss. The root problem is the inability of most people (or more likely all people) to say "no" to themselves.

Jesus drove this point home during His ministry on earth. In Matthew 16:24 He says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (NIV) People often speak about their "cross" as some ailment, annoyance, or trial that comes into their life. That's not what Jesus means here. The cross was an instrument of torturous death, and Jesus asks us to die to ourselves. Our own wishes and desires become subservient to those of God.

This doesn't only run counter to what the secular culture believes, it runs counter to what many Christian teachers promote. They teach that the Christian should have success in life because God wants to bless us, and that if we want something we should just ask God for it and it will be ours. Jesus never teaches that. He does promise blessing, but on His terms, not ours. It doesn't always mean material success.

When people don't say "no" to themselves, they essentially decide that whatever they want they deserve, and if they deserve it no one has the right to keep them from it. It doesn't matter what other people want, or what they think, or how they might be affected; it's all about getting what I "deserve." There's a theological term for this attitude. It's called "sin."

We were not created to live for ourselves. Sin came into the world through Adam and Eve, and we live with its effects today. What Jesus calls us to do is to break the power of sin, and say "no" to our selfish desires and "yes" to God's desires for us. He created us, and knows what we need to function best. It can be hard to say "no," and it is definitely counter-cultural. But until we can do this, and spread this through our society, we will never be able to overcome the bad news we see.