Lombard author explores 'Me-ville'

With unscrupulous mortgage lending, new McMansions fueling suburban sprawl and mountains of credit card debt carried by the average American family, it's easy to point fingers and say those people are greedy and self-absorbed.

But what if "those people" are us?

Lombard author David Zimmerman puts a mirror up to himself and our society in "Deliver Us From Me-Ville," a look at the consequences of our self-indulgent attitudes and how to get over ourselves by putting God in the center of things.

It isn't easy, Zimmerman acknowledges. After all, we can really only see the world through our own eyes.

"Everything runs through your filter," he said. "Our times aggravate it. Everything moves so quickly."

The daily routine of rushing the family through breakfast, hurrying everybody off to school, working long hours followed by a stressful commute and a quick dinner capped off with a couple hours of mind-numbing television leaves little time for reflection.

"In a culture that's as fast-paced as ours, it's easy to go into autopilot," Zimmerman said.

But some down time, even just a precious few minutes a day, is vital to moving out of Me-Ville, he stresses.

Having time for reflection, prayer and scripture reading allows a person to think and consider what God wants. And it's likely God isn't too interested in a plasma TV or a shiny new Mercedes.

"It's a good tradition, preserving time to pray. You notice yourself. Things move so fast that we blow past opportunities to step back from our hyper reality," he said. "Prayer is a good calibrating event."

Zimmerman, 38, said he was fortunate to have plenty of quiet time while working on "Deliver Us From Me-Ville." He usually gets up early and had hours of quiet at home in the evenings while his wife worked.

"I write to sort through things," he said.

All that quiet time gave Zimmerman plenty of time to think about his own quirks and admit he also resides in "Me-Ville" at times.

His own humorous tales of pompous and pretentious moments from his personal life lighten up a serious topic and highlight the fact that being self-absorbed can be as simple as obsessing over how much better your grab bag gift was than anyone else's at a friendly gathering - a true story from his own life.

He also found himself getting an inflated ego when he was appointed his church's youngest deacon and again when he played a starring role in a church play.

Zimmerman even notes that the idea of writing a book about a self-absorbed society could seem a bit, well, self-absorbed since an author is putting himself out there as an expert.

"It did help to catch myself being authoritative and superior," he admitted.

Sometimes it's good to step back and look at the humor of a situation.

"Just own it and laugh at it," Zimmerman said. "I enjoy absurdity."

"Deliver Us from Me-Ville," is Zimmerman's second book. His first "Comic Book Character: Unleashing the Hero In Us All" was published by InterVarsity Press in 2004. When not writing books, Zimmerman edits them for Likewise Books, a division of InterVarsity Press in Downers Grove. His latest book, published by David C. Cook, sells for $13.99.