Who is number one?

Ok, this may sound harsh, but hopefully you can see the larger point of my thought. What does an atheist, a disgruntled "Christian", and an involved "Christian" have in common. Well, first thing, is that I have recently had to opportunity to talk to all these "self labeled" people about problems in society and situations that we were in. You might even say that these people received cruel and unusually punishment by speaking to me on these manners. LOL

The larger point of this blog is the interesting take aways that I got from all three types of people. These people had one focus on the discussions that we had. That focus was themselves! The atheist mentioned that she did not need other people telling her things that she should not do, etc. She said that as long as she is not hurting other people, that it is ok. One disgruntled "Christian" shared that he was trying to change the youth ministry for years and could not get them to do what He wanted for his family. Another disgruntled "Christian" just took personal attacks on a pastor that was not present and the attacks focused on the fact that that pastor did not support their desires and that he did not do what they wanted/needed. Finally, the involved "Christian" that comes to mind, continued to complain about the department of service and the people that were in the church serving in this department. She complained that it is not fair that she has to serve these kids by staying at the church to make sure they were safe. Now before you go all off on me, I do not believe these people are "bad" people. I think our society teaches all of us to focus on ourselves and to expect others to serve us. Our society teaches us that we should put ourselves number one. This brings me to my point. I feel that the bible teaches us that the only way that we can be fulfilled is by serving and loving others. It teaches us that it is important to focus on others rather than ourselves. This is a huge contrast to our society and the people that I talked to about society and situations. Is it any wonder that our society is continuously in fights and struggles with the mentality of putting yourself first? In addition, what can we do if this same mentality has penetrated our churches and people outside are now seeing this same focus in churches? I would love to get others people feedback on this thought.

LIES

Why is it that people think they must lie in order to get something done or even to make someone happy. For some reason, a lot of people think that it is ok to lie in order to make someone feel better. For example, I was contacted by a youth at my church today asking me to lie about her being at church last night. The weird part is that the lie was to say that she was NOT there. I could understand her trying to cover her tracks to say she was there when she really wasn't. (I still would not lie for her though.) The reason that she wanted me to lie was because she did not want to hurt her friend. Basically, she did not have the courage to tell her friend that she needed to come to the church to talk to another friend that was mad at her. So now she is a web of lies and is wanting to get me to lie too. She is upset that I would not lie in order to help her friendship with the other girl. I think that if she would have been truthful to begin with, she would not be in the situation she is now. This makes me really think about what other lies are we told in order to "protect" someone's feelings. Isn't it more important to be honest than to start a web of lies to cover up truth.