i n s t a l l a t i o n o n e
"And I've been afraid of changing 'cause I've built my life around you."
-"Landslide" Stevie Nicks
I found myself praying a most surprising payer: to stop living life and thinking "in terms of others."
The mantra of independents is to not get attached to others, or to get lost in their world.
An equally surprising statement--this, "in terms of."
It connotes mathematics:
I see an equation, in all its complexity, but on either sides of the equal sign, remains a dilemma.
"Solve in terms of x," they say.
So I cross-multiply, divide by the reciprocal, or take the square root...and I realie I am symbollically moving heaven and earth to get my solution. Every trick in the book? Deployed for the sake of X.
And isn't that how it should be in life? In relationship?
It's been said that, "humility isn't thinking less of yourself; but instead, thinking of yourself less.
What better way than to use every trick in your book to serve those you need to love?
Like the equation, moving heaven and earth in order to love someone well?
Let me ask you this: if you were to put this into practice, would it be easy to get caught up with thinking about yourself? Not, it would be difficult.
Philippians 2:5 says, "Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."
We are to esteem others better than ourselves, we are called to think, speak, and live in terms of each other.
We are called to solve for X.
