Les Henson
Self-centredness generates the kind of self that is in the long-term very hard to live with. If we reject God and the way of life he desires for us and replace it with a self-centred life, then we end up being unable to live with ourselves. We may get away with it for a while, but sooner or later it catches up with us. Because it turns out to be empty and futile, and eventually those around us begin to see it for what it is, even if we don’t recognise the full extent of its impact upon us. Self-centredness maybe functional at first but eventually it contaminates the very structures of our lives resulting in an unhealthy way of life. It is like a cancer cell that gradually contaminates all the other cells that it comes into contact with. The solution must begin with self-recognition of the problem and self-renunciation as the first step towards wholeness. The recovery process will involve a reorientation towards God and others in a kind of spiritual twelve-step program of spiritual re-formation involving a broad range of spiritual disciplines and practices within the context of a loving and caring faith community.