What’s in It for Me?

 

 

What’s in it for me

Underlies every human attitude

Christian or non-Christian

That’s the general mood.

 

Paul calls it the flesh

It’s the human nature,

For the spiritually uncircumcised

It’s the bigger picture.

 

What’s in it for me

The objective and the outcome,

That’s where our focus is

From the rising of the sun.

 

It’s about our protection

And our prosperity,

It’s about us as individuals

And about our family.

 

Every deal we broker

Every scheme we pursue,

It’s about the “I”, my friend,

Never first about you.

 

“But they are exceptions,”

No doubt you will contend,

Yes, pertaining to important others,

Still the “I” in the end.

 

Whatever we do

Can be traced back to us

Even when we claim

To be closely following Jesus.

 

Paul speaks of this struggle

Even in the Christian,

It’s the problem in our fellowships,

It’s the underlying mission.

 

  

Even when we do for others

It’s about how we look,

It’s our image we are protecting

That’s straight out of our book.

 

If this poem offends you

Then you prove my point

But I am no different from you

 For I sit on my mount.

 

It challenges our spirituality

As we walk with Christ

And sometimes as Christians

We are not too nice.

 

Testimonies are often sullied

Because self gets in the way

And if you are like me

It can really spoil your day.

 

There is that innate drive

Spontaneously to protect the “I”,

We push Christ in the background

And that I can’t deny.

 

Anger management:

You may want to call it that

But by whatever you call it

It is still the underlying fact.

 

What’s in it for me

Is what it boils right down to

And it is not only in you

But it is in me too.

 

It is not the accusing finger

But those pointing back,

When we do the Mathematics

There is an obvious fact.

 

Stewart Russell © March 2020