The Religion of Self

This religion dates back to the beginning chapters of Genesis. Adam and Eve heard the whispers of being their own god and grabbed hold. They created the first idols—Themselves. You will find practitioners of this religion in any town, village, or city. All of us have struggled with this. A person’s favorite god is often him or herself. We see it in the pursuit of ourselves. We see it in selfish desires, ambitions, and hopes. We see it in the reasons we question or doubt God’s words. It is not that we doubt God’s abilities, but we look at His work and start to think that we would do it differently.

Even as Christians we can and do struggle with this desire. We want our lives to be ours to decide and determine, regardless of truth or its impact on others. We look at the narrative of our lives and want ourselves cast as the only main character and we want to be the sole director. We do not naturally want a universe revolving around God, want it circling around ourselves. Jesus calls us to the opposite spectrum. He describes coming to Him as dying to self. It sounds extreme, and it is. It is a removal of our selfish sinful self-seeking nature for one of seeking Christ. It replaces the thoughts of ‘what can that person do for me’ with ‘what can I do for that person.’ So many of our problems are a result of how we idolize ourselves. We see it in how we make love conditional to our spouses doing something first. We see it in our worry of our images. We see it when our desires whisper that we “deserve” this or that. The religion of self is one that is insatiable and will never be content. We see this with celebrities and their depression, in lottery stories, and the news each night.