I remember when our daughter Zoe was about 3, she taught my wife and I a valuable lesson. Leslie and I had established a habit of going on dates throughout raising our children. We believe that it is crucial to continue dating each other throughout our marriage. We also believe it is important for dads and moms to take their children out on dates. I was explaining to Zoe that momma and I were going on a date, when she said simply, “what about me?” Now this was not the first time she had mentioned herself, far from it. If we were eating something, going to the store, opening up mail, or practically anything else, she always said “what about me?” Thus the name “meme” was created. The funny thing about her desire to be included is that it gave me a picture of marriage and relationships in general.
First you have the selfish side. What about me? This is when people are not concerned about your progress, promotion, or prosperity; they only want to know what about me. This could be summed up as why are you being blessed and not me? I want that. I need that. That promotion or thing that you have should be mine. It is the sin of Adam and Eve lived out through our sinful nature that focuses on what we don’t have instead of what we do have. Think about it. Adam and Eve had everything and they were only restricted from one thing, yet Satan convinced them that what they had was worth giving up in order to get what they did not have. They never experienced the difference between good and evil only good. The desire was awakened in them to want what they did not need. Their desire to want more was the temptation placed before them. Satan’s agenda to have total obedience was working behind the scene as he presented to them a new concept, an unheard of proclamation. Does God have your best interest in mind?
The other side of the coin is meme wanted to be what God designed meme to be. A creature of communion/community. It was not good for Adam to be alone so God created him a helpmate. The two became one. The one came from the other (Eve from Adam), and then the others (mankind) continued to come from the woman (Eve). This ideal of communion/community was not new because the animals that Adam had dominion over were created after their own kind and commanded to produce others. The plants were also reproducing the fruits that God called them to produce. There is this communion/community concept from the beginning thus our daughter meme was designed through God’s plan to desire communion/community. So we have the two sides of one coin. The classic battle of the meme. One side seeks selfishness and the other side seeks inclusion through communion and community. So how do we turn me to we?
I witnessed an Army Chaplain write ME on a sheet of paper and when he flipped it, it read WE. The ability to go from me to we is as simple as turning the page over. I remember being a child and working hard to draw a picture for my mother. I messed it up. It did not come out like I wanted it to, so right when I was ready to ball it up and throw it away, my mother just flipped the paper over to the other side. I had a clean slate and was able to start over. I know many of you have messed up in life. Many have stamped every event in your life with your ME stamp. How do you turn your ME into WE? Turn the paper over. God has reached through the human timeline and inserted His Son so that the memes of the world could be on the right side of the paper. We can be in communion with the Creator and community with each other again like before the temptation and disobedience. We have another chance because Jesus told the Father send ME. Jesus said, I will die for meme. Sacrifice ME so all the memes can live in communion/community as WE.
John 17:20-26
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.22 The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
25 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
