Yes, people are now marrying … themselves!
It’s been yet another day of self-proclaimed Christian and positive-thinking “gurus” taking to social media to tell people the secret of your best life now is to have no one in your life who doesn’t directly benefit you. One fellow put it this way:
“Never surround yourself with people who NEED you more than those who FEED you …”
In other words, don’t have people in your life who aren’t mostly beneficial to you, especially if they need you more than they contribute to you. All of this nonsensical teaching is about loving and putting yourself first. Some people are doing that to the point they’re actually marrying themselves.
You read that right … some people are actually marrying themselves! The BBC reported the following:
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An Italian woman has married herself in a ceremony complete with white dress, three-layer wedding cake, bridesmaids and 70 guests. “I firmly believe that each of us must first of all love ourselves,” said Laura Mesi, a 40-year-old fitness trainer. “You can have a fairy-tale even without the prince.”
While the ceremony carries no legal weight, it’s part of a growing trend for self-marriage, dubbed “sologamy,” in countries around the world. Its advocates say it is about self-love and acceptance. Japan began offering such bridal ceremonies back in 2014, and in both the U.S. and Canada, self-wedding kits are offered with names like “I Married Me.”
Contrary to such self-indulgent practices, and the junk teaching of false gurus pushing self first, what Jesus taught us — and the example of His life — was completely opposite. If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, it doesn’t start with “self-love,” and it’s not about “surrounding yourself with people who feed you,” it’s this:
“Then he said to the crowd, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me,” Luke 9:23.
Are you first in love with yourself? Or have you come to the place where you have denied yourself, shouldered your cross, and are following Jesus?
Scotty
May 22, 2018 at 7:47 am
sooo… here i am thinking that if you should fill your life only with people who feed you, and not with people who need you… you will not be in anyone’s life. cause you need them to feed you, which makes you needy, which keeps you from being added to anyone else’s life. obvious? i think so. lonely? obviously. self defeating? you bet your bottom dollar.
May 22, 2018 at 12:43 pm
Hmmm, well ultimately, we only “need” Christ, but He has wired us to be social creatures (some more so than others). That’s not being needy, that’s how you’re wired. The key here is that as Christians, we’re not to live a “me first” life – we’re to die to self and a life of service, first to Christ and then to others. So the idea of only surrounding ourselves with people who bring something to benefit us is the opposite of the life Christ calls us to.