“Because of the inflammation, I’m acutely aware of my right shoulder.”

A thought by Brant Hansen (2015-04-14) from his book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (p. 183). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

So you may ask, how does that thought make a difference in my day today? My elbow doesn't hurt. And I’m glad you asked.

Brant says, “Timothy Keller uses the idea of favoring an inflamed joint to make a great point: this is precisely how the human ego works. It ‘hurts’ when it’s inflamed. Sure, it’s always there— everyone’s got an ego— but when it’s oversized, it’s constantly being injured or threatened. When it’s ‘all about me,’ I’m constantly aware of myself, bracing myself for ego injury.”

See, it’s a good thought. Brant goes on, “If you’re constantly being hurt, offended, or angered, you should honestly evaluate your inflamed ego. When you’re humble, you’re not constantly thinking, How do I look? or Am I a success? or What do they think of me? It’s just not on your radar screen. When self-interested thoughts do cross your mind, you’re able to recognize them for what they are, in most cases: downright silly.”

I like this, Brant says, “I noticed something about my grandma when she was in her eighties. She was very sweet and intelligent, and even had a job in addition to doing all the typical grandma stuff. She seemed younger than her years. But what I noticed was that, simply put, when it came to people’s opinions of her, Grandma just didn’t care. It wasn’t rudeness, and she was still servant-hearted. So far as I could tell, she was just completely unconcerned with whether people thought she was ‘successful’ in life. She’d always been brilliant with flowers, and she still planted them everywhere, but no one who knew her thought it was to impress anyone. She delighted in growing things.”

He wrote this when she turned ninety, “Wreatha Peters turned ninety last week, and you may have noticed, ninety-year-olds don’t really give a rip about their approval ratings. Ninety-year-olds aren’t fashionable, and it’s not because they can’t get to the mall. They just plain don’t care. And— let’s face it— when you don’t care what other people think, you don’t tend to go to the mall.”

I love it. That’s what I want to be when I get old. By the way, I already am old.

So how does your ego feel today?

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