Your Ego Is Not Your Amigo

We all have probably gone through a period of time where we struggled with our ego. We may have created a false sense of ourselves because we were not happy with who we were or maybe we lived in a fantasy world that escaped from reality for a myriad of reasons.

Ego is a persons sense of self esteem or self importance. When exercised in balance there is a sense of humility present that takes ourselves out of the way and puts God in the way. Ego is often referred to as Easing God Out but when we deflate the balloon of that false sense of who we are then ego can mean Easing God On.

In Luke 18 there is the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee and how they prayed. One prayed as a person who "had it all together" and the other prayed like "I wish I had it all together". One had a false sense of themselves, the other realized he was a work in progress. In verse 14 it says For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

We can look at it like the Pharisee was dead wrong about his spiritual status because he belabored the sins of another so he could make himself feel good but it works both ways. Here's a quote from the AA 12 & 12: In belaboring the sins of some religious people we could feel superior to all of them. Moreover, we could avoid looking at some of our own shortcomings.

Another quote from that book says this: All of A.A.'s 12 Steps ask us to go contrary to our natural desires...they all deflate our ego.  In other words, Your Ego Is Not Our Amigo when we use it as a weapon, a fantasy or a protective device to escape from who we are. It's all about understanding humility.

Are we easing God out or easing God on. If it's the later, then we take on the character of Jesus and follow the words in Philippians 2:3: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself.

​Talk about ego deflating - more of him, and less of me!