It's not about you...

The other day, I was driving to work on I-95 during rush hour. There's always traffic through New Haven, where 95, 91, and route 34 all come together. That small stretch along 95 is always backed up, even when it's not rush hour, as people merge and change lanes, and exit. It's the kind of highway design you can tell is really old, as if were designed for an age with fewer cars and lower highway speeds, and the designers could never imagine the kind of traffic we have today. Once you get past this small piece of highway, though, traffic generally moves pretty steadily.

Last Thursday, however, I had just gotten past that spot, and was once again regaining highway speeds, when I noticed a Mercedes coupe in my rear view mirror. The driver was an older man, probably in his sixties or seventies. As he passed me (on the right), I noticed he was wearing what looked to be a rather expensive suit. He had one hand on the steering wheel, while the other cradled his cell phone to his ear. I watched as he zigged and zagged his way between cars, using all three lanes and exit ramps when possible, never once braking nor slowing down. Other cars, however, braked and swerved a bit when he came near.

What a jerk!, I thought to myself. What gives him the right to drive that way? And where is a cop when you need one? No one on the highway honked their horn as he cut people off, made illegal lane changes, and never once signaled. I guess this kind of thing is pretty standard these days, and people have just gotten acclimated to it. As I thought about it, I realized that I do see this sort of thing in one form or another almost every day.

And it's not just on the highway either. People, myself included, regularly find ways to tell the world with their actions, I'm the only one who matters; no one else is as important as me. It's an overconfidence that really is en epidemic. It has been said that pride was the original sin, and that it is the source of all other sins, for before someone chooses to hurt another person or to disobey God, they first must decide that their own needs, wants, desires, and self-interest are the most important things in the world.

Paul wrote from a Roman prison to the Christians at Philippi, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others" (Philippians 2:3-4, TNIV). Paul is reminding these Philippian believers that they should have the same mind as Jesus, who put the interests of others above his own. He is remindin them that, as part of the kingdom of God, their ways should be markedly different from the world's. There should be no rivalry, no selfish ambition. Instead, as a sign to one another, and to the larger community, they should model the ethics of the kingdom. In this way, they would shine "like stars in the sky" (2:15).

And what is the point of all this shining? It's supposed to be contagious; it's supposed to spread like wildfire. Earlier in the letter to the Phillipian churches, Paul told how his attitude in suffering had been such a glowing example to the prison guards that they all now knew about Christ. They had

been impacted and the power of the kingdom was changing a place as miserable as a prison.

The attitude that says, "We're right," and justifies doing anything in the name of that rightness can be seen in something fairly small like rush-hour traffic or in something as large as the Holocaust. Sadly, most Germans were either Lutheran or Roman-Catholic in the days of Hitler. Most of them knew the teachings of Jesus, and they had spent their lives connected to a church community. Still, something gave them the overconfidence to stand by and watch as Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the mentally disabled were exterminated.

Even today in the US, there is a debate going on about whether or not we should torture prisoners suspected of plotting acts of terrorism. Overwhelming, Christians support these "enhanced interrogation techniques," but one wonders if they should be so overconfident - so ready to support something that seems to fly in the face of Jesus' teachings.

Could it really be so simple? Could the thing that brings peace really be found in Paul's summation of kingdom ethics? "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves." Imagine a world where everyone lived by this motto. They say that a marriage can never work properly if it's just a 50/50 deal. It only works if both partners give 100%. They each must consider the needs of the other. But shouldn't this be true in every area of life? I'm certainly not saying that I always treat others well or that I never act seflishly, but I wonder if this simple instruction might do more to change our world than all of the tracts, bumper stickers, sermons, and culture-war debates combined.