Un-blurring My Vision: Getting Self Out of the Way

Something To Think About, Un-blurring My Vision:

"Boy, did I get that wrong!" If you are like me, and I figure you are, you have often come to that conclusion in your dealings with people.  We are like someone looking at the world through a smudged lens. In Romans 12:3 the Apostle Paul diagnoses one of the causes of blurred vision and prescribes a remedy.   For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. (Romans 12:3)    The Apostle uses a play on words that is tough to reproduce in translation.  Some form of the word phronein, think or mind, is found four times in this verse.  "Don't hyper-think; be level-headed."  All the translations I looked at indicate that what we ought to not over-think is ME--don't think more aboutyourself more than you ought to think.  This focus is made clear as we read the verses that follow.  When I view others around me asking, "What can they do for me, or what have they/might they/could they do for me?"  Or, "How can I use them to better myself?"  I'm looking through a lens smeared with the grease of selfishness.  "Don't do that." the Apostle counsels. Instead, think soberly.  "Hello, my name is Howard.  I'm addicted to thinking too highly of myself.  It's a bit complicated but Paul tells us that our thinking ought to be calibrated by faith.  In this context faith describes the way in which we are able to have a right relationship with the Lord.  Part of that new God-me relationship is the fact that God has gifted me so that I can "[b]e devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor."  (Romans 12:10)   More than half a century ago President Kennedy famously captured the thought, "Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country."   This is a metric that is often emphasized in Scripture. See Jesus' words known as theGolden Rule, Hissummary of the spirit of the law. or the example the Lord, Himself established in His coming to earth.   In our self-obsessed world the Bible challenges us to look on others with love--best defined as a determination to do that which will bring the highest good for the object of affection.  Think John 3:16. If you are like me, and, again, I figure you are, we've got some lens cleaning to do.    It's STTA.