By Kenneth Jensen

Kenneth Jensen is a retired Evangelical Lutheran Church Association pastor living in Albert Lea.

Stories can proclaim truth better than lectures or sermons. Among them are the adventures of gods and goddesses in Greek mythology, among whom is Narcissus.

Narcissus was the handsomest of young men and loved by many. Among his admirers was the mountain nymph Echo. Echo fell in love with the 16-year-old deer hunter and followed him throughout the woods. However, her love was not returned. Rejected and in despair, Echo disappeared from the woods and mountains, fading away.

Many other nymphs and youths sought the love of Narcissus. They, too, were ignored by him. Eventually, one of them prayed to Nemesis, the goddess of divine retribution and revenge, “So may he himself love, and not gain the thing he loves!”

One day, Narcissus came to a pool to quench his thirst. When he saw his reflection in the water’s smooth surface, he fell in love with it. Upon realizing it was his reflection, he died of sorrow at the pool’s edge.       

This coming Sunday, many will hear the words read from Romans 6:8: “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

Flesh is not a reference to pornography. Flesh is biblical shorthand for a self-centered life focused upon our needs, our wants and our desires. The Apostle Paul warns us that when life is consumed by getting what we want and getting others to do what we want, life itself is choked out of us.

As a cocky teenager, my mother would continually remind me, “Pride goeth before the fall.” Mom may not have known about Narcissus, but she was familiar with Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”     

We surmise the rich, famous and powerful as most vulnerable to narcissism. Many are; yet, when we pray, use of the pronoun “I” frequently dominates our prayers. It is indicative of living in an increasingly first-person singular world.

Much unhappiness exists around us. When we wrap ourselves in the pursuit of happiness, investing our time and energy striving to get what we want out of life, like Narcissus we will close in upon ourselves. We cut ourselves off from the stream of life around us, flowing through the people with whom we come in contact. We put on blinders which prevent us from seeing the joy, enthusiasm, goodness and love that abounds. God designed us to be buoyed up in our relationships with one another. Narcissistic tendencies choke such a life out of us.

It takes a leap of faith to remove the blinders of selfish pursuits and to see the wonderful, unpredictable spirit that flows freely and full of life in us and in one another. Jesus put it this way in the Sermon on the mount: “Blessed are the meek (i.e. humble) for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).