Day 8: Selfishness Leads to Destruction

     This past weekend I went to a friend's college to see her in Shakespeare's Macbeth. In a nutshell, Macbeth shows the consequences of a man's choices. Macbeth was given a prophecy by some witches that he would become thane of Cawdor and then later King of Scotland. They tell his fellow general Banquo that he will eventually have someone in his line become King, but will never become King himself. When Macbeth is named Thane of Cawdor, he has to wonder if the witches' prophecy will come true. He goes home tells his wife about it and then she comes up with a plan to kill the current king, King Duncan. Macbeth then kills King Duncan. Macbeth can't stop thinking of the witches' prophecy so he has some men hired to kill Banquo. He gets more prophecies, becomes power hungry and despite being constantly riddled with guilt, he continues to do what he needs to do to stay in top power. His wife, Lady Macbeth starts to feel so guilty for what they have done, that she drives herself mad and kills herself. In the end, Macbeth is killed. (there's more to it but for this post let's just stick to the basic plot).

   Macbeth's selfishness became his downfall. He could have stopped what he was doing but he didn't. He continued to get more and more power hungry, became more evil and eventually his actions had some major consequences. Now although those of us reading this post probably aren't going to go to these extremes to get what we want, I think that we can learn something from Macbeth. We may or may not realize it but there are moments when we use others to get what we want or step on others in order to stay on top. Though it may seem like if you do X,Y or Z you will be able to get what you want, in the end it will not be worth it. It may not come naturally to put others before ourselves or to not manipulate others in order to get them to give us what we want but because of Christ in us, we can put others before ourselves and avoid manipulation. Maybe for you it's not even those things, maybe it's more that you may reach out to others so you can be loved rather than to simply love others because all people deserve to be loved and because they are valuable. I know for me that's something I have to think through at times and make sure I am loving because of who they are and not loving because of what they can do for me.

Philippians 2: 3-4 states, "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 others."

Try throughout this week as you are with friends to think of ways you can serve them, think about your motives behind the things you do for them. Ask God to show you any areas of your life where you need to be more selfless.