AT LEAST IT’S NOT MY PROBLEM (PART TWO)
AT LEAST IT’S NOT MY PROBLEM (PART TWO):
HOW TO COUNTERACT “THE HEZEKIAH MINDSET”
How do we counteract the “Hezekiah Mindset”?
In PART ONE (you can catch up here) of “At Least It’s Not My Problem”, I unpacked the idea and the danger of the “Hezekiah Mindset”. King Hezekiah, after being confronted with the reality that some of his decisions and choices would create, and how it would impact future generation replied with this mindset: “At least there will be peace in my lifetime…” There are not many people that I have met in life that have an intentionally self-centered perspective on life and decisions. The challenge is when we never allow the slow creep of self-focus to be challenged and confronted.
But what is the solution?
How do we counteract it?
How do we avoid settling for a mindset that doesn’t think beyond ourselves and our own circumstances?
To avoid succumbing to the same mindset that King Hezekiah had, there are a few intentional things that we can do. Here are THREE WAYS TO COUNTERACT THE HEZEKIAH MINDSET:
COUNTERACTION ONE: THINK BEYOND YOURSELF AND YOUR LIFETIME.
Our first counter action is to get intentional with our thinking. If left unchecked, our thoughts can take us a lot of places that we never expected to go or places that we didn’t even realize we were headed. A great example of this is the slow creep of self-focus. Understand, you live in a world and culture that has be re-designed for self-focus.
We must be willing to think beyond ourselves. If not, it will be easy to look at situations and circumstances around us and simply reply: “At least its not my problem…”
COUNTERACTION TWO: CARE ABOUT YOUR PEACE AND COMFORT, BUT DON’T MAKE IT YOUR IDOL.
As I shared earlier, we live in a world and culture that has been re-designed for self-focus. Personal focus, self-care and personal awareness are all important and vital. The challenge for each of us is to not allow them to become our ultimate goal or the ultimate good that we pursue.
As a follower of Jesus, I have to face the reality that my comfort can’t always be my number one goal, if I want to live faithful to Jesus as a disciple. God is good. He loves me. But there are times that obedience is not comfortable. If I always make it about my comfort, that becomes the very thing I end up serving, and therefore has become my idol.
COUNTERACTION THREE: EXPAND THE SCOPE OF YOUR VISION
We have all experienced the impact of tunnel vision in either ourselves or in others that we have come in contact with. The only cure to overcome tunnel vision is expanding what you are looking at. Expanding the scope of what I am seeing requires active and intentional discipline to think differently, look differently, and often live differently. Many of the conflicts and challenges that we face in life — whether it is personal conflict, marital conflict, or conflict with those that we work with — is often connected to an unwillingness to expand the scope of what we are willing to see.
King Hezekiah focused in on his own comfort and peace. Even though he was told about the impact of his choices and decisions, it came back to himself. Counteraction Three is so much easier to talk about, or even assume that we are functioning in it, then it is to actually practice it.
THINK BEYOND YOURSELFCARE ABOUT YOUR PEACE AND COMFORT, BUT DON’T MAKE IT YOUR IDOL
EXPAND THE SCOPE OF YOUR VISION
These are three intentional things that each of us can do in order to counteract the Hezekiah Mindset.
