What Every Person Must Hear and Confess
Paul Tripp at The Gospel Coalition offers a scathing rebuke to our self-centeredness in What Every Pastor Must Hear and Confess. 
While Dr. Tripp wrote it focused on pastors, you’ll notice that I’ve tweaked the title from Pastor to Person because I believe it speaks to all of us.
Here are a few of the powerful quotes.
• The problem in our relationships is not first that we don’t love one another enough; no, the problem is that we don’t love God enough, and because we don’t love God enough, we don’t love one another as we should.
• Could it be that we are so busy loving ourselves and making sure that others “love” us in the way that we want to be loved, that we have little time and energy left to love them as we should?
• Could it be that we are so busy working to co-opt the other into the service of our wants, needs, and feelings that we are too distracted to notice all the opportunities to love that every day gives us, and too busy making sure that we are loved to do anything about these opportunities even if we noticed them?
• Enough of pointing the finger.
• Enough of listening to your inner lawyer defend your cause.
• Enough of carrying around a record of the other person’s wrongs.
• Enough of judging, criticizing, and blaming.
• Enough of holding the other to a higher standard than the one you hold for yourself.
• Enough of complaining, arguing, withdrawing, and manipulating.
• Enough of the self-righteous standoff that never leads to change.
• Enough of hurt and acrimony.
• Enough of painting yourself as the victim and the other person as the criminal.
• Enough of demanding and entitlement.
• Enough of threats and guilt.
• Enough of telling others how good you are and how thankful they should be to live with a person like you.
• Enough of angry, self-righteous silence.
• Enough of hyper-vigilantly watching others to see if they are delivering.
• Enough of riding the roller coaster of their ups and downs.
• Enough of looking to others to be your personal messiah, satisfying the longings of your heart.
• Enough.
• It is time to quit pointing the finger and start confessing your deep and pervasive weakness.
Read the entire convicting article here.
