The Heavy Burden of Being Full of Yourself

As a country we are living in light of the effects of narcissistic personality disorder, a disorder that makes humility almost impossible to live out. The consequences of that are massive: chaos, war, lack of civility, the suspicion of strangers and foreigners, constant attention-seeking behavior. From a distance, some people can put up with that because the narcissism seems somewhat removed from us. When the narcissism gets closer, more people become resistant. You just stop inviting Uncle Fred because his lack of humility, his malignant narcissism really gets on your nerves, makes you embarrassed and angry. He's not pleasant to have around. If we can avoid him, we feel we'll be better off. For some, humility seems like a big unpleasant job. Dying to yourself and to the attitude that suggests that life is all about you feels like a real burden. But truthfully, narcissism and lack of humility are exhausting. They separate you from people.  They don't bring joy to life and to relationships. You'll notice that narcissistic people seldom have fun or laugh much. Laughter and fun often require you to get over yourself. People lacking in humility can't do that. "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave." Emptying is hard stuff. But ultimately it brings you to the joy we are meant to have.