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Not My Monkeys

             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 2:3-4)

 

            Why do I make things harder than they are? Or is it “why do we…"? In my case, there’s a tendency toward codependence and all-or-nothing thinking. If I am to love others or look out for their best interests, that tends to involve taking over their lives, even at the cost of pieces of mine. Codependence? I wouldn’t be surprised. Over-thinking? Undoubtedly. But underthinking isn’t any better.

            As I considered this passage this morning, I thought briefly about some Old Testament laws. If their neighbor’s animal fell into a pit, they were required to get it out of the pit (or at least help.)  The parable of the Good Samaritan also comes to mind. The Jews were at fault because they didn’t help the injured man. In our day, there are stories of women screaming for help and whole neighborhoods ignoring them and of men having a heart attack in a store and people walking around them. “Not my monkeys, not my circus.”

            So what if looking out for someone else’s interests isn’t about making oneself a slave to them? What if it’s not about praising them to everyone within earshot? What if it is about picking up litter when you see it in their yard, leaving tomatoes where they’ll find them, or returning their trash cans to their backyards the morning after their garbage is collected? What if it’s about saying, “Not my monkeys, not my circus, but I’ll close the cage door so they can’t get out”?

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