Scattering Selfishness: A Path Toward Compassion and Self-Discovery

I love George MacDonald’s June 24th entry in Diary of an Old Soul. He broached the topic of love, not in a romantic sense, but in a loving our neighbor context. MacDonald, in his Unspoken Sermons, Series I, II, and III, also connected love to justice by asking the question, “Were there no love in us, what sense of justice could we have?” Here is what he wrote on this day in 1880:

“Love in the prime not yet I understand –

Scarce know the love that loveth at first first hand:

Help me my selfishness to scatter and scout;

Blow on me till my love loves burning;

Then the great love will burn the mean self out,

And I, in glorious simplicity,

Living by love, shall love unspeakably.”

The line “Help me my selfishness to scatter and scout” really jumped out at me as a poetic plea for personal growth and self-awareness. MacDonald was asking for assistance in overcoming his own selfish tendencies. Those same selfish tendencies we all have. He was hopeful that these selfish impulses could be dispersed (“scattered”) and examined (“scouted”) so that he could better understand himself and perhaps become more generous, compassionate, and spiritually aware. This reflected MacDonald’s desire for humility and a recognition that self-improvement often involves actively confronting and exploring one’s own flaws.

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