A cause greater than our own self-interest

"A generous man will himself be blessed,

  for he shares his food with the poor." - Proverbs 22:9

I ended up watching the Saddleback Forum on the Presidency this weekend, and then re-watched it with a couple of guys from my small group discussing the candidates, their responses to the questions, and Rick Warren's initiative in creating such a forum where we could at least attempt to get to know the two candidates that are running for President.  It was very good... perhaps one of the more authentic looks we've had (considering that this is a Presidential campaign, authentic is very hard to come by)

I thought Rick Warren did a very good job of asking some penetrating questions that allowed us to discern the character of the two men running for office.  One of these questions asked at the beginning of each interview was:  "What was your greatest moral failure, and what do you believe is the greatest moral failure of America?"  In a way, the answers given by both candidates were very similar... and I would agree with them.  

Obama:  We are not doing enough to pay attention to the "least of these." 

and McCain:  We do not do a good job of serving a cause greater than our own self-interest.  

I liked the way McCain phrased his answer, because it highlights in a way our (and my) shortcoming at leveraging God's blessing for our country and God's blessings in my life for doing good for others rather than hoarding them for myself.  I also liked his response because it focused more on individual citizens going out and doing good, volunteering, sacrificing of themselves, rather than the (if you were listening) focus Obama had on social policy.  

McCain followed in his answer with something that you may have remembered that President Bush told America after 9/11...  McCain said that (paraphrasing) "after 9/11 we shouldn't have told Americans to go shopping, or to go take a trip... we should have told them to join the Peace Corps, or volunteer, join the military... to join in the great missions that America is involved in around the world."  Could you imagine what would have happened if after 9/11, Americans fundamentally started to give more of themselves to others and volunteer overwhelmingly in faith-based ministries, churches, International causes, community service, serving the poor, etc... versus returning to our materialistic ways.... the image of America around the world would be so much greater than it is today... and not to say that we don't volunteer, or give of ourselves... we do.  But honestly, is that our reputation around the world?  Or is our reputation one which we heard our current President encourage in:  "buy, buy, buy... indulge... don't deny yourself....here's a check!"  

Sadly, this type of entitlement to privilege mentality may be getting into Christianity too... I was browsing some blogs and ran into a post that Joe Derbes wrote about Joel Osteen's wife's lawsuit... sadly, none of this surprises me.

Here is the link - some other blogs are linked to here too .  

Is the "favor of God" teaching that is being espoused and acted out in these incidents the same entitlement mentality that we as Americans allow as well?  I suppose that, since we are a nation founded on Judeo-Christian values and a very religious culture... that our propensity toward self-interest would make its way into Christian teaching as well.  

My question is:  What does God smile at?  Really.  Jesus gave up His privileges and served us... going to a cross to die for us because we needed that so we could be right with God.  He didn't demand His rights, even though He had them.  As a man, he served a cause greater than his own self interest... to shine on the glory of God the Father and to give His own life as a ransom for people.  And... if serving a cause greater than our own self interest is good enough for Jesus, then by golly it should be good enough for us.  

One thing I have observed... is that people who primarily live for themselves and do not give of themselves to others are usually (this is my observation from life experience) much less happy than people that do.  Somehow, what Jesus told us about "if you lose your life, you will find it" is true... those that live for a cause greater than their own self interest are ultimately happier and more fulfilled than those that live selfishly.  In the words I read from Solomon this morning:  "A generous man will himself be blessed."  I sometimes wonder why this paradigm exists in the economy of God... but am convinced that this is how things work.  

And doing things to serve "the least of these," as Obama said in his answer... that's a pretty good thing to do too :-).  I think Jesus was down with that idea as well.  

Links:
First Part of Obama's interview:


First Part of McCain's interview