On Saturday I witnessed a driver who almost caused a major pile up. The highway was splitting; there were two lanes were heading west, two lanes heading north, and an exit lane. Meaning this spot in the road was 5 lanes wide. This person, who I can only assume almost missed their exit, came to a full stop in the second lane from the left, turned their car towards the exit and gunned it towards the exit, driving perpendicular to the oncoming traffic. Other cars were swerving and slamming on their brakes, so many people put in danger because one person made a horrible decision.

Even by driving in New Jersey standards, this was reckless and needlessly aggressive. While I hope you’ve never put the lives of other people in danger, we have all been this person who made a selfish decision in order to get to where we wanted to go. Selfishness is a modern epidemic as so many of us strive to, “Get what’s mine.” However, it’s something that we easily point out in others but have a hard time seeing in ourselves.

For Christians, this means that we must strive every day to live into the call of selflessness. 1 John 3:16-20 tells us,

16 By this we know love, that he [Jesus] laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees their brother or sister in need, yet closes their heart against them, how does God's love abide in them? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

We hear “lay down our lives” and think it means dying for someone; while it can mean that, it can also mean letting someone else win, putting what you want behind what someone else needs. This takes a lot of practice, and there will be times we fail, but growth only comes from effort and doing something differently.