Becoming unimportant

One of our Adult Learning Community (aka Sunday School class) teachers is a practicing psychologist who once confessed to the group that he viewed himself more as an applied theologian than a psychologist. I was "surprised" that no one joined me in clapping for the direction he has taken. Questioning one's training is always difficult, but consistently holding to biblical truth in the area of psychology is particularly challenging because of all the anti-biblical theories of man that float around. To paraphrase our teacher: "A pat on the back for anyone who even tries."

The past couple weeks the topic has been dealing with various characteristics of narcissistic people.
They tend to:
1. Overreact to criticism.
2. Hold an inflated view of their own importance ***Comments on this below***
3. Feel a sense of entitlement (that the world owes them)
4. Exploit others to achieve their goals
And we're only halfway through the list! Needless to say, having the mirror held up is not comfortable, but this is a whole lot better than hearing "Jesus loves you just as you are" for the umpteenth time.

The applied theologian gave us homework to help overcome our tendency toward self-importance. "Ask your mate how you can be unimportant to them." I.e. Serve them in a way that they are fully capable of doing themselves (emphasizing that you are not desperately needed, but are still called to practice love).

We are unimportant (God has no need for us), yet in His mercy and grace He has chosen to use us for His kingdom and given us the gifts and abilities to match the visions and passions that He has given us. What is important is His kingdom and His purposes, not us. We are frail and weak and easily fail, but His purposes do not.

What better way of becoming unimportant than working yourself out of a job? Let me explain. Many people think that their company (or family), desperately needs them and derive satisfaction from being needed. I've known quite a few mothers that don't know what to do once they begin to realize that their children don't need them as much as they thought. But, that is exactly what parents are called to do - raise children to be mature adults, who no longer need them. I think people should try to do the same at work. If you have people working for you, train them to do your job (not overnight, but strive toward the goal). That does not do much for job security, but it might open up a new job as a trainer. (You should probably train people even if that does seem like it might threaten you down the line - hope and trust are important virtues to learn).

I've been thinking about it for a while and I hope that our "applied theologian" will take bigger steps toward being unimportant. I figure that he is "important" to at least 35 clients a week (probably much more since he strikes me as somewhat driven). His biblically consistent counseling really can make a difference (to those who are willing to respond to truth). Of course, he already caps most (all?) of his counseling at 10-12 weeks, which ensures he is not too important in the process of healing. But, he could become even less important by taking a younger counselor under his wing to train in biblically driven counseling. If that training took up 3-4 hours a week, the counselor could only be "important" to 30 clients a week. If he were to extrapolate this trend (add a couple more trainees), this counselor could be VERY unimportant. And, eventually, he could really capitalize on his unimportance by training others to train others, so that biblically consistent counseling in Austin could go on without any of his future involvement (a lifetime goal). Of course, God would probably have to provide some novel forms of financial support to help facilitate this level of unimportance, but I for one would be willing to help.

I've heard that some political campaigns get started when someone is convinced to run by those who think they are capable. So, I guess this a "draft 'unnamed psychologist' for greater unimportance" post. One of these days, God is going to smite me for "suggesting" what others should do (if people don't beat Him to it), particularly when they are both older and wiser. In my defense, I have benefited greatly from others who have taken steps toward unimportance and I truly want to see others have the opportunity to learn from unimportant people who just happen to be building outposts of God's kingdom in their backyard.

Is there anyone you want to draft for greater unimportance?