Center of the Universe

I have a long commute to the office, mostly freeway driving, along with many other Houston drivers. Recently, there seems to be a rash of driver’s, usually during rush hour, using the fast lane but traveling slower than the flow of traffic. Being on a time schedule, I found myself getting more than a little irritated at them. “Move over” or “How inconsiderate”, I’d think. But this morning it hit me “Hello…... it’s not all about you, Ann”. I had to laugh for that’s exactly how I’d been behaving, although not consciously. My thoughts were centered on how the driver was affecting me. I'd never given any thought to what was going on with them. Maybe they were having car trouble, maybe they were nervous on the freeway and felt more comfortable driving with only one car next to them, maybe they had a crisis that they were focusing on. How easy it is to slip into the trap of thinking that life revolves around me.

Our natural tendency is to center on ourselves. Yet, when we give our life to Christ, He becomes the center of our universe.  Our orbit has Him at center followed by other people. How do we know when we've slipped back into our old way of thinking? One sure way is by considering what it is that we find bothersome, frustrating or irritating. If it’s generally about how something or someone is affecting us there is a good chance we have placed ourselves in the center of the universe and our orbit is warped.

So how’s your orbit doing? Is the God of creation the center of your universe today, or is it you?