When I was in seminary, eons ago, I remember  one of the most hysterical statements I heard went something like this: “I am contemplating my finitude.”

 

What the what?  Who sits around contemplating their “finitude”?  Crazy people, that is who!  And to think, one of the prerequisite steps to seminary admission was psychological testing.  They should have asked us how often we sit around contemplating our finitude.  SMH!!!

 

My DH and I still joke about this statement.  We equate it to contemplating your navel or Omphaloskepsis. That is your word power word for today!

 

Here is the Wikipedia definition:

Omphaloskepsis or navel-gazing is contemplation of one’s navel as an aid to meditation.[1]The word comes from Greek omphalos (navel) + skepsis (act of looking, examination).[1]Actual use of the practice as an aid to contemplation of basic principles of the cosmos and human nature is found in the practice of yoga of Hinduism and sometimes in the Eastern Orthodox Church.[2] Some consider the navel to be “a powerful chakra of the body”.[3][4]However, phrases such as “contemplating one’s navel” or “navel-gazing” are frequently used, usually in jocular fashion, to refer to self-absorbed pursuits

 

I will be using the “jocular fashion” …. where we talk about self-absorbed pursuits.

Today I am reminded of many who are involved in this behavior.  The seminary colleague, and honestly I cannot remember who this person was – he (pretty sure it was a guy as I was one of only a handful of females) was infamous to us for this statement only, was absorbed in his own pursuit.  His own finitude. Really – no one else cares about my finitude… well when I have reached the finiteness of my finitude, a few people may express some nice thoughts but the next day they will return to their finitude. See what I did there…. yeah, me neither …

Anyway – contemplating our navels. The human race does this everyday and in every situation. As a group, we are much more involved in seeing things looking inward rather than seeing things looking outward.  It is a challenge to actually look up once in a while and view what is transpiring around us.

 

Happens in our personal lives

We think me, me, me.  How do I take care of me? How do I protect me? How do I …blank… for me?

 

Happens in our employment lives as well.

This one is easier to see if you are on the outside of the organization.  We call attention to it daily with statements that identify how such and such business is not satisfying our needs, our timing, our customer driven wants.

 

Gotta get out of the navel folks.

Seriously – I don’t understand organizations that look at themselves from the perspective of… THEMSELVES.  Of course they are doing everything correctly – it is being done from their comfort zone!! From their perspective. So that it meets their needs. So it fits in their navel.  Organizations need to look at themselves from the customer perspective.  Don’t they teach this anymore? How the heck do you get a business degree and not understand this fundamental process?  How do you get to upper management and not see things from your customers perspective?

Somehow, this idea has been traded in for the concept that meeting other’s needs is too costly.  That the bottom line drives the business/organization to attempt to meet the needs of the the “average” customer and leaves those who do not mathematically fit into the average or the mean (look at me using math references)  out in the cold so to speak.  Outside of the navel. Well I have news for ya… eventually – this will not work.  Eventually, you are going to kick yourself and ask why in the world you didn’t look at your organization from the outside in and then determine how to run your enterprise more effectively. And now it is going to cost you! Ultimately in dollars.

 

It is easy to identify with these ideas when they are about businesses or employers or entities.

How do we identify with these ideas when applied to our personal lives?  Can we get out of our navels long enough to see if there is some other way to do life? Can we look at what we bring to relationships from the perspective of what others need in their lives?

 

I am not suggesting that we become doormats.

Nope. I am someone who CLEARLY understands the Jesus who tipped the tables and threw the tax collectors out of the temple – don’t believe in doormats. What I do believe in is reaching out rather than reaching in. Observing what others need in their life. Asking myself what can I do to reach out and do something about what someone else needs.  Am I great at it? No… but I am trying to do life this way.  There are some who are great at this – just not enough “somes”.

One simple example, and one that my DH and I practice (I say practice because someday we might get it completely right) is to put the needs of our spouse before our own needs.  That way I am not looking out for myself in the marriage  – I am looking out for him.  And he is looking out for me. We are practicing “no navel gazing”.  We get better and better at this as time goes on. And if you think about it, if I am looking out for his needs and attempt to meet them, and he is looking out for my needs and attempting to meet them, then, VOILA, we both get our needs met.  So it should be in other places in our society.

 

So today, as you reflect on what has or is transpiring in your life, see if you can look at it from the other perspective, not your perspective, and if there is anything you could do differently to effect a change from that side of the story.  Maybe there is and maybe there isn’t – but it at least warrants us looking. Or just see if  there is some need you can meet for someone else. Anything you can do to get the your focus off of yourself.

Navel gazing?  Why bother – because all you really get from that is lint.  Looking up and outward – well the opportunities and rewards are endless… how is that for busting through our “finitude”?