Learning that it isn’t about you, but about them was the greatest realization of my life.
“Selflessness doesn’t ask you to think less of yourself. It asks you to think of yourself, less.
Figuring this out was the greatest realization of my life.
You unlock a level of joy unknown to most when you learn that this life thing is really about being a vessel for them.”
-Ray Zingler on X
I guess the one positive thing about growing up immature and selfish is that it provides a relative benchmark, provided you gain the maturity and self-awareness to acknowledge it.
I know many people can’t do this because of their pride and ego, which is why we have many “kids these days” trapped in adult bodies. We call them adults because of their age, they are really just small children in larger, older bodies.
Fortunately for me and I know many others, you find out that selfishness ain’t the sauce. Kicking and screaming to get your way, hoarding for yourself, & manipulating environments to “get what you want” isn’t the way. And I learned this from experience as a teenager.
Growing up, I had loving parents, everything I could ever need, access to every resource under the sun and then some. And somehow, it still wasn’t enough.
I was always looking for that next thing because I thought joy was something you chased. I thought the more you acquire for yourself, the more joy you could attain.
But I kept acquiring and my joy never changed. Hell, I even saw a reduction in joy at times.
Something about this equation wasn’t right.
And then I started serving God.
I’d been a Believer my whole life, but after some deep trial and tribulation in my early 20’s I really submitted to Christ and started serving Him.
And the desire to acquire, the therapy visits, the medications, all the “stuff” I thought I “needed” to feed my joy became obsolete.
While I am no perfect man, and no perfect Christian, I started trying to emulate Christ.
“That sounds Holy!”
Trust me, I am the furthest thing from it (just ask my wife), but I did start trying to act a little bit more like Him and a little bit less like me.
I started to focus not on what I could do for and acquire for myself, but what I could do for and help others with.
And I started to see the joy in my life skyrocket.
Aiding in the success of another, provides a level of fulfillment that is inaccessible to those focused on themselves.
And you can take that word to the bank.
Selflessness >.
