Don't Google Your Name!
I'll never forget the first time I googled my name! Guess what came up? A tomb stone with my name on it and a missing dementia patient. Serves you right....
I guess one could google their name for the fun of it. But most probably - and secretly? - the main reason folk google their name is to see if you they are "known" or famous, and that is surely not a noble excuse, for it flows out of pride in the heart. As we make our way through the sonnet of love that is the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, we have come to this line, "Love.... does not boast."
What Boasting is Not
Boasting is not writing down on your CV all your work experience, qualifications and accomplishments so that a future employer may gain an accurate assessment of your suitability for a job. Provided, of course, there is no exaggeration! Boasting is not answering a private question about our pasts, which someone might have put to us.
What Boasting Is
I will never forget the first time I connected to Linkedin. I was shocked at the open way folks paraded their past accomplishments, and the grand titles even good folks were giving to themselves! Boasting is boasting when the motive is to tell others what we have achieved to make ourselves look good. Boasting is putting our CV online - not for employees to see but for the world to marvel at.
Boasting is a particular temptation online where folks are tempted to give a completely skewed image of who they are and miss out all the "other stuff" which would give a far more balanced view of who they really are.
When my wife and I visited Bath last year we popped into a museum which was once the house of a wealthy man. The tour guide explained that everything from the furnishings to the food to the paintings were designed to impress the visitor and portay the impression of a well-connected, well-educated, well-bred individual. No skeletons on view here.
My online dictionary has got it just about right, boasting is: "talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one's achievements, possessions, or abilities."
The "Good thing" about Boasting
Believe it or not, there is one good thing about boasting: it reveals the nobility of human beings. We boast because deep within our psyche we were made for glory, made for greatness. Adam and Eve, King and Queen of Eden were not made to be like the animals, who do not ponder meaning or significance, but they were made to be rulers with a kingdom and a purpose.
This is one of the reasons we boast: we want our lives to be, or to have been, significant, meaningful, purposeful and not in vain. In Christ, however, there is no need for baosting, because we are already reigning with Him on high! Far above Jay-Z, Trump or.....
The Bad about Boasting
There are some evils about boasting which we need to be aware of. First, boasting in the world is often linked to a denial of death. People know they are going to die, but to gain a kind of "immortality" they try to achieve something which will endure beyond the grave - then they tell everyone about it!
We who love the Lord know that the only valuable assesment of who we are or what we have acheived will come from the Lord on the final day of judgement. Only that court matters. So we can live incognito all our earthly days waiting for the only worthwhile words of praise: "Well done you good and faithful servant." We don't need to leave an earthly legacy.
Second, boasting is pride in gifts and abilities and privileges that the Lord has given to us, not that we have somehow conjured up ourselves. "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 1:31). Nothing we have or are comes from ourselves, all of it was given to us from God. So boasting is robbing God of the glory due to his great name.
Thirdly, along with boasting is the temptation to exaggerate, either by omission, "I studied at XYZ University" (ommission: only got a third class degree) or by commission, "My company grew 15% last year" (actually it was closer to 10%, 11 doesn't round up to 15, it rounds down to 10). So boasting can often give birth to lying: few sins are solitary.
Fourthly, boasting makes other people feel bad. Boasting says "I'm up here" and by silent extension it says to the other guy who does not have, "You are down there."
This is what was happening at Corinth. People were telling everyone about the flashy spiritual gifts they possessed - and by silent extension they were putting down the people they were speaking to who did not have those snazzy gifts.
Summing it All Up
Let's be honest, it is tempting to sneak into conversation, whether in real life or online, facts which will big-up our image. We are all encouraged to do that in our celebrity world. But love resists that temptation.
True love for one another says nothing about our gifts, abilities, possessions, past achievements, and so on.
Why? Becasue we don't want anyone feeling bad about their own pasts. And we want moreover to give the glory to where it alone belongs.
Jesus lived a life free from boasting. It's one reason the Pharisees hated him so much. He did not play their big-up games. Who was this geezer from noplace Nazareth!
A SONG FOR THE DAY
Today's simple song - which I would not include in a hymn book! - comes from the musical Godspell and it is a prayer that every day we might become a little more conformed to the image of the humble so-exalted Jesus Christ.
Day by day
Day by day
Oh Dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day
Day by day
Oh Dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day
Stephen Schwartz. You can hear it HERE.
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Our loving and merciful Father in heaven,
We thank you for every gift we enjoy, whether natural abilities or gifts of heritage bequeathed to us through our parents.
We acknowledge you as the Giver of every good gift and we repent of all our boasting.
Keep us from pride and help us to be sensitive to those we speak to so that they may never feel put down.
Teach us the humility of the Lord Jesus who though he was the divine Son of God he emptied himself and came into this grimy old world to lift us to the heights of his throne.
Help us to remember every day his words, that if we want to be truly great in His kingdom we must become the servant of all.
We thank you that he sits enthroned on high,
And we worship him today
Amen.
Photo by Greg Bulla on Unsplash
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