I have a confession to make.

I am a recovering Pharisee. That’s right. I have lived a good chunk of my life like those dudes in the Bible that Jesus called a brood of vipers (See Matthew 12:34). As a teenager, I was one of the most judgemental holy-rollers you would have ever met. If you were breathing air in my general vicinity, you can almost guarantee I was passing judgement on you while at the same time thinking I was better than you. Honestly, I look back at my teenage self and cringe just a little. Granted, it kept me out of trouble back then. I was a very reliable designated driver and wore a white wedding dress with pride. However, I know that I pushed people away in the process, and if I got real honest with myself, likely even pushed some of them away from God.

In the Bible, the Pharisees were the super religious people who knew every word of scripture, but really never took that knowledge and used it to help or love anyone else. They were so busy trying to find every fault in anyone that they couldn’t even see their own shortcomings. They couldn’t even see the very Messiah they had been waiting for right before their very eyes. What a shame. How many miracles did they miss out on because they were too busy fault finding, judging, and condemning to see what was happening before their own eyes.

Philippians chapter 2 does an amazing job of addressing those of us who live their lives so focused on what others do wrong that they miss out on what God really has in store for them. “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 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 the others.” Philippians 2:1-4 NIV

When I think of my own life, I have found so much joy in the moments that I am encouraging others. However, that isn’t always an easy thing to do. It is so much easier to get pulled into a “what about me?” mentality and simply worry about life through the lens of how things will affect me, or the “at least I am not like them” mentality and look at others as less than. Sometimes (oftentimes) it is inconvenient to think of the needs of others above our own. And sadly, sometimes we will get burned when we do offer help to others. A little further in Philippians 2 it says this: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Who, being in very nature a God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man ,he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:5-8 NIV.

In order to find joy, we must let go of ourselves. We must let go of the selfish ambitions, judgements, and lofty opinions of ourselves. We must strive a little more every single day to put on that humility that Jesus had and choose to serve others. We need to stop striving for the approval of man, at the expense of our relationship with God. We must choose to value others above ourselves, regardless of how difficult that my be at times.

I am a work in progress in those departments. I still struggle in so many ways. But my prayer is that tomorrow I will be further in the path to being like Christ than I am today and that this time next year I will be even further in that process.