He Said, “It’s Not About You.”

In my early twenties, while working as an art director at an advertising agency, I was having a conversation with Bret, a very talented copywriter.
As usual, I had brought the conversation back to myself, when Bret interjected, “You know Devin, it isn’t always about you.”
Like lightening, his rebuke pierced my ego. Ashamed and humiliated, I saw clearly that I was addicted to habitual self-preoccupation.

Self-preoccupied people, like the incredibly dense gravity of a black hole sun, have a spiritual gravity that sucks the “light of life,” the vitality and joy from the people around them. The weight of their personal gravity, like a vacuum, sucks people into their dark, perpetual, cyclical self-absorbed vortex.

They are spiritually “heavy.”

G.K. Chesterton is famous for saying that “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.”
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, while attending seminary with Blessed Solanus Casey, entered the chapel to pray, only to discover Solanus levitating.
Solanus, like Chesterton’s angel, is the opposite of the self-preoccupied person: he takes himself lightly.

A typical cumulus cloud, approximately 1 cubic kilometer, is reported to contain 131,894 gallons of rainwater.
One gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds.
In other words, a typical cumulus cloud holds over 1 million gallons of water.
A typical thunderstorm cloud holds millions of gallons of water.
One inch of rain over a square mile is the equivalent of 17.4 million gallons of water.
Regardless of the substantial water weight, clouds float and are thin enough for solid objects like aircrafts to pass through.

Clouds are analogous to the resurrected Christ who could ascend into Heaven and pass bodily through walls—yet He is full of “living water” (grace), which He intends to shower upon mankind.

Conversely, Dante Alighieri’s Inferno depicts Satan imprisoned, waiste high in a frozen lake generated by the excessive and violent flapping of his wings due to his manic, incessant futile attempt to escape.

St. Theresa of Avila was granted a vision of her place in Hell, which she described as a cupboard-like cavern in the wall of hell, from which she would never move.

Jesus describes the man who was discovered without his “wedding garment” as having his hands and feet bound and cast into the darkness where there is wailing and grinding of teeth.

Notice each of these typifications involve a being that is rendered immovable, stuck, bound by the gravity of their self-importance; unlike the angel, the saint, or Christ, who literally floats, levitates and can pass through solid structures.

As St. Thérèse of Lisieux said:

“Those who do not mind whether they get attention and respect or not, find themselves surrounded by every kind of love.”

Indeed, they are not only surrounded by love, but are capable of showering incredible amounts of it on their fellow man.

Notice:

Clouds are heavier than many objects on the earth, nevertheless they float.
Similarly, a God-centered soul has greater “weight” than a “heavy” a self-centered person.
The God-centered, other-oriented soul floats above the opinions and respect of men, while these weigh upon the self-centered person and increase his “spiritual gravity.”
The God-centered soul, through his intercession for others, like a cloud, can pour down grace on others like rain.
Yet, the self-centered person is dry and located “below” and therefore cannot quench anyone’s thirst for grace.

What does this mean for us?
When we replace our self-preoccupation with God-preoccupation we will cease to take ourselves so seriously.
We will no longer be bound by human opinion and being respected by men.
It is then that we became heavy with God’s living water, able to shower others with it.

It could be as simple as refraining from saying, “God I need this…God give me this…” and replacing it with, “God, what do you want? Lord, what can I do for You?”

God’s business is not to make our lives easy and comfortable. His business is to save souls. To be united with Him in this mission means that first we need to take our focus from ourselves and begin seeing the souls who need saving.

Indeed, the harvest is great, but the laborers are few. (Matthew 9:37)

“Let us then remain far away from all that is vainglorious. Let us love our littleness, our lack of sensitivity. We shall then be poor in spirit and Jesus will come for us…and will set us afire with His love.”— Thérèse of Lisieux