Unchanging Truth

Psychologists and psychiatrists have a big book called the DSM. It is sometimes called the bible for mental health professionals. This week the committee that revises the DSM announced that the new edition will no longer include narcissistic personality disorder.

Times, they are a changing. The committee seems to be saying that it is no longer considered abnormal to be completely focused on yourself or believe that you deserve everyone’s admiration and attention. In the era of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and reality TV, it seems it is quite normal to have grandiose ideas of your own importance and to think the world basically revolves around you.

Of course, this is not to say that those who use cyberspace for social networking are all into themselves, and it is not to say that modern technology has made us worse people. We are simply observing  that men and women continue to do what we have done for centuries, and that is try to legitimize our selfishness and pride. We convince ourselves that our sin is acceptable because it is not abnormal.

When Jesus said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me,” he was not speaking words people in his time wanted to hear. When he said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it,” he wasn’t happily fitting in with the latest trends. No, he was calling us to have a revolutionary mind change, and he was promising that it is the way to life. I am confident that will never seem normal, but I am sure it is right.