Narcissism

Mar 12

Written By Kylah Lohnes

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 13:5

[Love] does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Reflection:

Today I choose to fast from the wound of narcissism.

While we often think of narcissism in its most extreme sense - someone who thinks so highly of themself that they can almost speak of nothing and no one else - it’s actually much more common and subtle than that.

Ken Kniepmann writes that narcissism is when “our uniqueness to our Heavenly Father becomes tangled up with the littleness of our humanity before him. We confuse our God-given specialness with an illusion of greatness. We are so confident of our own specialness that we think others cannot relate to us”.

Although we may not want to admit it, we are all tempted to engage in narcissism at times. And while it is important not to lose sight of our place as image-bearers of God, it is equally important that we recognize the image of God in others. We must hold these things in tension - the image of God in me does not diminish the image of God in you. Nor does the image of God in you diminish the image of God in me.