The Attack of the Possessive Pronoun

The Attack of the Possessive Pronoun
by Ken Miller

On a recent trip to the Twin Cities, I was poking the scan button on our car radio trying to find a weather forecast, when a song from my past filled the vehicle. In an instant, I was back in my dorm room at Moorhead State. The stereo was blasting: “You’ve made me so very happy. I’m so glad you came into my life.”
Leaning back in my seat, I continued to listen to the brass and the full voice of David Clayton Thomas, when that little bitty possessive pronoun, my, interrupted my bliss as I listened to my radio in my car. (My is a form of the possessive case of I used as an attributive adjective. Okay, okay, I can hear you, dear reader. “Ken, have you fallen off your lily pad? This is a church newsletter, not a grammar lesson.” Sorry, but it is important to catch the significance and power of that little two- letter word.)
I recall my own motivation for becoming a Christian. I wanted Jesus to heal my blindness so my life would be better. I was what musician, Michael Tyrrell, would call a “meople.” A “meople” believes Matt. 6:33 reads: “But seek ME first…” A good “meople” believes it’s all about ME.
A number of years ago, Elmer Johnson, a retired Alliance pastor, asked me if we could sit down for a short chat over coffee. At that point in my life, my healing was all I thought and prayed about. “I wonder, Ken,” he said, “if God isn’t more interested in getting to know you, than He is in healing you.” His question gave me pause and put the first chink in my “meople”. He continued. “Have you ever heard the hymn, Himself, by A. B. Simpson?” I had not. “May I recite some of the lyrics?” I nodded. (Note: The entire hymn can be found on page 248 in our hymnal.) “Once His gift I wanted, Now, the Giver own; Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone.”
In the years that followed, a subtle shift began to take place in the way I thought about that little possessive pronoun. The Scriptures are very clear about ownership: we belong to God (1 Cor. 6:20, 1 Peter 2:9 ). As the chink in my “meople” grew, I started to see it was all about Him. Like the movie title asks: Whose life is it anyway? I re-wrote the lyrics in the first paragraph to say: “I’m so glad You invited me into Your life!”
Now when the possessive pronoun attacks, I don’t think of my “wood, hay and stubble,” (1 Cor 3:11-13) but rather how “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” (Song of Solomon 6:3) It’s no longer me possessing my life, but He possessing me.