Selfish McSelfishson

Not too long ago, I tried to start the 'Stephen Club'. This was probably the greatest idea for a club ever. Despite this fact, however, I found it rather hard to get off the ground. The nice thing about the Stephen Club is that anyone can join, and it is free for life. The premise of the club is that everyone just does whatever I (Stephen) want, whenever I want, however I want. Brilliant! But, as it turns out, everyone just wants to have their own club, and no one wants to be in mine. This reminds me of something Jesus said.

Mark 8.34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, Jesus said, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me."

It really struck me how the first instruction Jesus gives people wanting to follow Him (be in His club) is: "turn from your selfish ways" (note: most translations use "deny yourself" instead, which is an even stronger way of saying it). I've been thinking a lot about how selfish I am. I just want to be in my club, and have everyone else be in my club, but I don't want to be in anyone else's club. Selfishness is really the root of all sin (putting yourself before God, and putting yourself before other people. This breaks the 2 most important commandments). The unfortunate reality in my life is that:

-The reason I am not closer to God is because of my selfishness (wanting to do what I want to do, rather than spend time with Him...He's already done His part and left an open door to Himself)
-The reason I let other people down and do not treat them as Jesus would is due to my selfishness, and how I want everything to revolve around ME.

It's convicting to try to go through a day recognizing every action/decision/word spoken that is based on selfishness (which is most of them). And then try to adjust and go the selfless route. This is hard, but this is not optional. This is the first thing we need to learn to do as disciples of Jesus: turn from our selfish ways. And we can't just pick and choose what we do or don't. We can't be in our club and in God's club. Take your pick. Your wildest dreams will only come true in one of them though.