Self-preservation is at odds with the Jesus-over-everything life. It is as my friend, author Sharon Hodde Miller said to me: when we want people to like us and thereby continue on in our passivity, we “set them up to continue on in error.” (A request to my friends: please love me enough that you don’t keep letting me make some bonehead mistake if you see that’s the way I’m headed.) This mind-set shift may also take a bit of retraining. Self-interest over love is a long-held reality for most of us. It won’t die easily, so don’t give up.
