Being Involved Without Being Invested
Have you ever felt like you just cared too much? Sometimes we do better when we are disinterested than when we deeply care. Why? This is an emotional phenomenon known as attachment: when we identify with it to the point of ownership. We take everything said or done about the subject “personally.” If a decision is made against our desires, it deeply offends us, and we find ourselves obsessing. Instead, we need to be detached understanding that we can still care without letting it become personal.
Something like this happened to Samuel when the Israelites asked him for a king. First Samuel 8:6-7 says, “But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.’” God’s response teaches us a couple of things. First, we should not be so upset over losing something that we get depressed about it. Christians must rejoice in the Lord (Phil.4:4) and let Christ’s joy remain in us (John 14:11). We can’t do that if we allow earthly defeats to push out our joy. Second, God wants us to remember that all things belong to Him. Psalm 24:1 states, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.” There is nothing that I truly possess in this life; it all belongs to God. I can never really lose anything, and there’s no reason for me to “take things personally.” Rejoice always because God is in control.
God bless you, and I love you.
Kevin Cauley