03/03/2022 – The giant of Self
This month we commemorate and remember the tragic events of September 11, 2001. We honor those brave men and women who selflessly gave their lives in trying to rescue others. The police officers, the fire fighters, the EMT workers, doctors, and nurses as well as ordinary citizens. I personally remember coming home late that day, I remember seeing my fellow passengers on the Metro North still covered in dust and ash. Some sat in silence donning a blank stare of disbelief, others couldn’t stop recounting their experience as a manner of coping and processing the events. The days that follow, we saw people forget their self-importance, people flocking to church, neighbors flying their American flags, donating blood, doing what they could do to help.
Esther 4:15-16
“Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ‘Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.’”
Just before Queen Esther had found her resolve and strength (verse 11), she confronted the giant of self and won. This giant can disguise himself in the form of “self-preservation”. Do not miss understand me, self-preservation is a normal thing, it is part of our survival instincts. What I am speaking about is the indifference, the complete disconnect and the unwillingness to help others in a great time of need, that’s the giant of self.
Esther 4:11 “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”
Speaking with my wife regarding the many heroes of September 11, I mentioned to her, “there is something very special about fire fighters. They are so willing to sacrifice so much for complete strangers.” Then I asked, “where do you think that selflessness comes from?” My wife replied, “that selflessness has to come from God.”
We may not all be fire fighters or first responders, but we can ask God to deposit in us that same selfless spirit. Spiritually speaking, we may have to run into a burning building and rescue someone from the grips of sin and hell. We may not all be like Queen Esther or like Mordecai, while facing genocide and the destruction of the Jewish people, they prayed, they fasted, and Queen Esther risked an audience with the king. Spiritually speaking, we all can overcome the giant of self with prayer and fasting, even at personal risk to ourselves.
Today meditate on this scripture: Esther 4:16 “…I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.’”