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The Expense of an External Focus

Gail Sheehy is the author of a helpful book entitled Passages: Predictable Crises in Adult Life. In one section of this book, she describes life in terms of its external and internal dimensions.

Your external dimension is your public self. This includes such things as your job, your family, and your role within that family. It includes your status in society, and your role within that social class. Your external, public dimension also includes the way you present yourself to those around you and the way you participate with those around you. It's your outer self.

In contrast, your internal dimension includes the meanings these public interactions have for you. That is, your internal, private self consists of your feelings, your values, your goals, and your aspirations. It's your inner self.

As we continue our quest of worship as a way of life, we've been thinking about what it means in Romans 12, verse 2, when it says "do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

We've already talked about comparing ourselves with each other in ways that disappoint God. We've seen that such comparisons distract us from setting our minds on the things God wants us to think about. That's particularly dangerous because our actions tend to follow our thoughts. If we become absorbed by thinking wrongly, we will act wrongly, and we'll pursue paths that go against God's will for us.

Today, let's not consider how we compare ourselves with each other. Instead, let's consider how we think about ourselves. This, too, can bring either glory or grief to the God Who loves us.

As I said a moment ago, we each have an outer self and an inner self. These two dimensions compete for our attention. And which wins, do you think? You're probably right: We often give more attention to our outer self than we do to our inner self.

Why do we do this? It's probably because the steps of our inner growth are more difficult than the steps of our outer growth. "What's more," the author says so well, "the prizes of our society are reserved for outer, not inner, achievements. Scant are the trophies given for reconciling all the forces that compete to direct our development, although working toward such a reconciliation...is what underlies all growth of the personality."

Another way to describe this is as a battle between doing and being. We generally choose what's easier: We dwell on the externals. By the way, do you see the connection between this habit and our unwise comparisons among ourselves that we discussed last week? It's this mental focus on our outer self that leads to the unwise comparisons that grieve God.

This isn't a recent phenomenon. The Scriptures tell us, for example, of a man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a short man whose short story occurs in Luke 19. As Jericho's chief tax collector, he may not have been well liked, but he made up for that problem by ambitiously climbing to a position of power. Along the way, he began to accumulate wealth. Externals mattered a great deal to him. He was focused on his public self.

Then he met Jesus. That encounter with the Messiah revolutionized his perspective. It changed his heart. It led him to give half of his possessions to the poor and to handsomely repay anyone he had cheated. Why do you suppose he let go of these impressive trappings of outer success? The answer is that he let God transform him by the renewing of his mind. His inner self became more valuable to him than his outer self.

Advertisers have been very quick to exploit our weaknesses for their corporate profit. Have you seen the TV commercials in which a simple jar of spicy mustard is surrounded by an environment of luxury? If you're willing to accept the association they're trying to create between their mustard and that environment, they are willing to accept your money!

How about the nauseous ads which try to build in our minds an association between cigarettes or alcohol and cleanliness, youth, freshness and fun? Can dwelling on those external trappings affect our thinking-and purchasing habits? You can count on it; the advertisers are.

If we stopped at this point, you might think that the answer to this dilemma is to change our focus from our external self to our internal self. As commendable as that may be, it isn't enough. There are many people in your community whose pursuit of inner values exceeds their pursuit of outer values - and still they're in serious trouble whether they know it or not. Dr. Luke gives us an example of such a person. In chapter 18 of his gospel he tells of a rich young ruler approaching Jesus with a question. He has it all: wealth, position, prestige, youth-and more: he has high moral standards. His question of Jesus was this: "How can I live forever?"

Christ's answer was not what he wanted to hear. In sharp contrast to Zacchaeus, the young man sadly walked away from Jesus. Having attained all his external and internal goals, his vision stopped at that internal step. He saw no farther and he climbed no higher - even when Christ offered him the opportunity.

My listening friend, how about you? When the weekend comes and you go to church, how do you respond when you hear a sermon challenging you to dwell neither on your external self, nor your internal self, but on your eternal self? Does it seem like too much? Does it make you want to run back to what you can see and touch, singing "...gimme the old-time externals?" If so, think about the implications.

If you fall back to focusing on your external, public self, you'll be pursuing mixed up values. Mixed up values produce mixed up goals. Mixed up goals make you uncertain about what to do. Uncertainty undermines your willpower. And wavering willpower leads to conflicting actions. Suddenly you see yourself as a ship with a very confused captain and compass. You see yourself going one direction and then another, wandering all over the ocean. There are moments when you enjoy the cruise-but you know you're really getting nowhere.

Time goes by as you wander through life. The springtime of your life passes, then the summertime. After that you enter the winter of your life and look back in dismay, "Where did the years go? What have I done that really matters? Why did I do this to myself?"

Ecclesiastes 4:4 said it well: "And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind" (NIV).