I’m sitting in my studio reading Isaiah.  This past weekend is a blur in my brain.  I saw the Lord work powerfully in his church.  I saw Japan.  I had an important meeting on Saturday.  The whole world is mourning now.  I feel heavy and urgent and kind of sick.  I’m praying a lot.  I just hit the end of Isaiah 39 and almost cried.

Isaiah tells King Hezekiah that a disaster is going to happen.  The enemy will ransack his palace, plunder the temple, and haul away every last national treasure.  To top it off, Hezekiah’s future sons will be castrated and made into slaves in the palace of his enemy.  If I were the king at that moment, I doubt you’d blame me if I relinquished command of my bowels on the spot.

Hezekiah’s actual response is even nastier.

“The word of the Lord you have spoken is good!” Wait.  What?  Hold on, it gets worse:  ”At least there will be peace and security in my days.”  Unreal.

Hezekiah is heartless.  God gives him a heads up about a coming disaster, and all the guy can do is be relieved that it’s not going to happen in his lifetime.  He’s the exact opposite of an others-centered person.  He’s almost totally self-centered.  His personal comfort and success is all he cares about.

Hezekiah started out great.  His reign was marked by godliness and widespread peace.  Just one chapter earlier, God blessed him with 15 years of bonus life.

But in the end, Hezekiah is all about Hezekiah.

I wonder, is it possible for the human soul to be over-blessed?  I’m not implying that God’s blessings are to blame for Hezekiah’s gross narcissism.  God is love on a throne of grace.  Blessing is God’s business.

It seems like Hezekiah’s transition from being others-centered to being self-centered is the direct result of his conversion to materialism.  (Check out the beginning of the chapter where he shows off everything he has to the bad guys!)

Randy Alcorn put it this way: “Christ’s disciples love people and use things. Materialists love things and use people.”

Let’s be real, all of us deal with self-centeredness in some form.  It can be as loud and obnoxious as road rage, and it can be as subtle and easy as thinking this thought:

“The devastation in Japan is crazy!  It makes me feel sad.  Theoretically, it could have been the San Andreas fault and Los Angeles instead.  But it wasn’t, praise God.”

Did you catch the Hezekiah-like thinking?  Makes me want to throw up in my mouth.  But to be honest, this is often the way I think.  Even though I’m a Christian, my eyes don’t see past my comfy bubble of stuff automatically.  It takes effort.  It’s intentional.

The question isn’t whether or not I am capable of self-centered thinking.  We all are.  It’s called failure to love.  Everyone is guilty of this kind of failure.  The real question I have to ask myself is, have I positioned my life in such a way that I can no longer see when and how I am failing?

Why not position your materials around others in desperate need?  Text REDCROSS to 90999 right now and $10 will go to the relief effort in Japan.  It’ll just hit your phone bill and you probably won’t even feel it.