AKO ANG SUPERSTAR NG BUHAY NG LAHAT
Some people act like they’re the sun where the solar system revolves around. And don’t think that being followers of Christ makes us an exemption. Some of us act like God’s entire plan for the universe revolves around us and our happiness. This is mostly reflected in our prayer life where we feel betrayed if we don’t get the answers that we want. Or worse, we see others get what we want.
A quote by Pastor Adam Stadtmiller shared by Pastor Paolo Punzalan says it succinctly. “When prayer is primarily about answers, our relationship with God becomes results-focused. It is a soft gospel that makes our wants and desires the central focus of prayer’s message.”
Praying is having a relationship with God. It’s not just a litany of what we want and need. Do you know anyone who only talks to you when s/he needs something from you or baka ikaw yun. That’s how it is with us when we treat the Holy Creator of the universe like Aladdin’s genie. At least with the genie, we know we can only ask up to three, but with God, we come to him with a list that makes us listless when He “fails us.”
A therapist coined this mentality as “the main character syndrome” where we act like we are in a movie and we are the bida. And because we are the star, everything revolves around us. Everything happens to us. I remember one friend whose uncle got infected with COVID at the height of the pandemic, uttering, “Why is this happening to me?”
People with main character syndrome treats everybody else as a supporting cast and other people’s lives as subplots. Well, plot twist! The world revolves around God.
The apostle Paul had every reason to suffer from main character syndrome in all his beatings, conspiracies against him, shipwrecks, abandonment of friends, and worst of all, being arrested under false charges. He spent 2.5 years in prison and another 2.5 under house arrest for something he didn’t do and did do. He didn’t instigate rebellion or disrespected anybody’s religion but he preached the gospel which earned him a lot of powerful enemies with connections to the powers-that-be who didn’t care for human rights.
If we were in Paul’s shoes, our #1 item in our prayer list would be justice and our freedom. In the events that led to his death, he did not ask churches to pray for his safety and release but he prepared himself for it, just as Jesus did, and pressed on with the gospel that he literally lost his head for it.
Did Paul wallow in self-pity? Did he become angry at God? Did he turn his back on Him? No. In his letters to different churches, he never wrote about his unfair predicament. The most that he did in his letters was to identify himself as a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the reader didn’t know the context of his letters, s/he would think everything was hanky-dory with the way he glorified God, ministered to others, encouraged others, and shared the gospel. Paul knew who was the Main Character, not only in his life but in the world. Let us therefore imitate Paul, just as he imitated Christ, in whatever situation we find ourselves in (1 Cor. 11:1).
Some people act like they’re the sun where the solar system revolves around. And don’t think that being followers of Christ makes us an exemption. Some of us act like God’s entire plan for the universe revolves around us and our happiness. This is mostly reflected in our prayer life where we feel betrayed if we don’t get the answers that we want. Or worse, we see others get what we want.
A quote by Pastor Adam Stadtmiller shared by Pastor Paolo Punzalan says it succinctly. “When prayer is primarily about answers, our relationship with God becomes results-focused. It is a soft gospel that makes our wants and desires the central focus of prayer’s message.”
Praying is having a relationship with God. It’s not just a litany of what we want and need. Do you know anyone who only talks to you when s/he needs something from you or baka ikaw yun. That’s how it is with us when we treat the Holy Creator of the universe like Aladdin’s genie. At least with the genie, we know we can only ask up to three, but with God, we come to him with a list that makes us listless when He “fails us.”
A therapist coined this mentality as “the main character syndrome” where we act like we are in a movie and we are the bida. And because we are the star, everything revolves around us. Everything happens to us. I remember one friend whose uncle got infected with COVID at the height of the pandemic, uttering, “Why is this happening to me?”
People with main character syndrome treats everybody else as a supporting cast and other people’s lives as subplots. Well, plot twist! The world revolves around God.
The apostle Paul had every reason to suffer from main character syndrome in all his beatings, conspiracies against him, shipwrecks, abandonment of friends, and worst of all, being arrested under false charges. He spent 2.5 years in prison and another 2.5 under house arrest for something he didn’t do and did do. He didn’t instigate rebellion or disrespected anybody’s religion but he preached the gospel which earned him a lot of powerful enemies with connections to the powers-that-be who didn’t care for human rights.
If we were in Paul’s shoes, our #1 item in our prayer list would be justice and our freedom. In the events that led to his death, he did not ask churches to pray for his safety and release but he prepared himself for it, just as Jesus did, and pressed on with the gospel that he literally lost his head for it.
Did Paul wallow in self-pity? Did he become angry at God? Did he turn his back on Him? No. In his letters to different churches, he never wrote about his unfair predicament. The most that he did in his letters was to identify himself as a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the reader didn’t know the context of his letters, s/he would think everything was hanky-dory with the way he glorified God, ministered to others, encouraged others, and shared the gospel. Paul knew who was the Main Character, not only in his life but in the world. Let us therefore imitate Paul, just as he imitated Christ, in whatever situation we find ourselves in (1 Cor. 11:1).