My Dad used to play checkers with my sister or me on the pull-out drawer of his massive wood desk. We’d pull up a kitchen chair across from him and sit down to match wits against our beloved father. I can still remember the glee of being able to shout, “King me!”
firehouse checker by sciondriver (CC BY-NC 2.0)
King me, right?
King me. Put me on the throne. My thoughts, my preferences, my desires, my issues, my wants and wishes. King me.
Our Facebook posts, instagram feeds, and tweets shout it out – king me.
We spend our days building up a kingdom that centers around us. Our home, our family, our job, our school, our needs. It just keeps going. King me.
I guess I would call this the kingdom of self. We all reign in our own kingdom at times. We selfishly want things to go our way. We act or scheme or direct conversations so the focus stays on us.
It calls to mind Mark 8:
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
This kingdom may be the hardest to crush. It seems to be a back and forth struggle. Sometimes I feel that I can put myself aside for others, and then the next thing I know it’s “king me” all over again.
Do you see yourself calling out “king me” sometimes? I don’t think that this is one we can crush on our own or quickly. It takes prayer and constant handing over to God. Daily.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23
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Barbara H.
/ October 18, 2014Visiting from the 31 Dayers group on FB. This is so true, and it keeps manifesting itself in so many different forms and ways. We so need God’s strength and grace to battle ourselves.
Alina
/ October 18, 2014We stop building kingdoms for ourselves only when we feel loved enough. That’s the issue with modern men. We tend to feel too insecure, so we try to make all in our power to gain a little sense of power and stability and we believe that the things we possess give us what we’re looking for. But it’s an illusion. It’s only when we love and we feel loved in return that we don’t need to build things outside ourselves and we start to crumble walls instead. The walls that separate us from the others… and divinity.
claygirlsings
/ October 18, 2014Thanks for the comment, and you’re right about it being an illusion.
I might take it a step further and say that when we feel loved we are still at risk for putting ourselves in the center of everything. We, sadly, often love for what we will get in return (when we are honest with ourselves). It’s only in stepping aside and giving God that rightful ruling place that we can begin to let go our our control over things.
Kirsten Holmberg (@Kirsten828)
/ October 18, 2014Oh dear. I fear my whole life cries “king me” when I’m not consciously fighting against it. This is a fantastic metaphor!
claygirlsings
/ October 18, 2014Oh yeah, me too. I’m definitely preaching to myself here. 🙂
ccmitch
/ October 18, 2014Oh my goodness. What a hard but holy way to look at ourselves. It reminds me a lot of the message of my post today as well on the parable of the great banquet. I will carry around this phrase with me for sure this week as I try to let Him be the King and get out of His way. Thank you so much for sharing this!
susan2009
/ October 18, 2014Great way to illustrate this struggle with “self.” Too often I say “King Me” with my words and actions, and even my prayers.And when I let my life run on auto-pilot b/c of extra busyness, fatigue, health issues, etc, I usually am not thinking about living life with a servant heart and mind.