Remember that song...

"Let's just forget about ourselves, magnify the Lord, and worship Him"

If you had a "born on date" (if you drink domestic beer, you know what this is) into Christendom during the 70s or early 80s you probably remember this song. I was reflecting, by the way of D.A. Carson's Worship by the Book, how incomplete this line is. If we are simply told to forget about ourselves and sing this song, even after about 4 times through, we are no farther along. Think about it. Are we drawn to leave anything for something else unless we are persuaded and can see that what we don't yet have is better than what we already have? We love ourselves dearly. In fact, we are completely stuck on self-preservation and self-worship. Our only possible way out of this is for us to somehow see something even better. The only way to turn away from ourselves is not to forget about ourselves, but to remember and see Christ. Until seeing Him we don't see ourselves as less than desirable. If fact to attempt to turn away from ourselves with out turning toward Christ is really more like Buddism or other eastern religions that help us trot on the way to Nirvana, a state of perfect nothingness. So, in short, the gospel never asks us to turn away from ourselves unless we are turning toward the overwhelming superior magesty of Christ himself.