I DON’T MEAN TO BOAST, BUT….
I don’t know about you, but I feel uncomfortable with conversations with too many “I’s” in them.
Now don’t get me wrong, “I” is an appropriate identifier of the first person singular, it has its place.
But where the focus of a conversation is “well I did this and that was excellent and so many people thought that what I had done was so good…it was all because of what I had done…if it wasn’t for me……no one is better than me at…..” etc etc
The technical term is of course boasting.
False modesty can be just as annoying in some cases but of the two I think better err on the side of humility than boasting, every time.
Except, that is, if you are God.
Then it’s OK!
Why is this important?
Well, if you are a believer reading this and have an idea of God as an awesome creator, transcendent almighty God, you probably let God’s right to boast above all others as a given. But what if someone reading this is not. Doesn’t believe in God. Or has a twisted view of God – either as a belligerent and erratic maniac (such as Stephen Fry would assert) or of a god of the ancient pantheon, more human than divine and full of weakness and insipid irrelevance. Other descriptions of atheism can also apply…
If any of these are your position it would be understandable to say “what have you got to boast about?”
In this context, I was struck by this morning’s Old Testament reading from Jeremiah. It was a short reading, but a very potent one.
23 This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,
24 but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 9:23-4
In context it is a surprising couple of verses. Jeremiah begins with much woe and prophetic warnings to Israel and those surrounding. In fact chapter 9 has many warnings about weeping and ruins, death and destruction. The verses that follow the above quote are a dire judgement on the nations and especially Israel that they are not truly circumcised – that they have no connection to God for whom circumcision was the sign of his promise.
Yet, these verses sit amongst all this doom, and turns to God himself. There is something of a self-declaration. I am:
LORD
KIND
JUST
RIGHT
And the prophet issues God’s words to the believers – boast in me. Not in your strength or wisdom, in me.
Because I do.
Because I can.
I am worth it. Because I am God. And God is I AM.
I knew a preacher and teacher once who spoke about God in a series of talks and he said “You know, one of the many things I love about God is that he has an attitude about being God!”
And he was right.
He made us. He can break us. He loves us. And he wants to rescue us.
We are brute beast before him. But he loves us anyway. And draws us to himself.
Paul said much about boasting.
“3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” (Romans 12:3)
And to the Corinthians in the painful second letter we have, this:
17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. (2 Corinthians 10:17)
I once wrote a social media post highlighting the difficulty of Christian leadership and applying for ministry roles. In a place where one needs to be honest about gifts, skills and passions it is also important to have a humble perspective.
In fact, in preparation for a leadership course, one of the questions effectively asked:
Just how humble are you?
How does one even answer that question?!
If love and compassion and mercy is about putting the other above ourselves and we are called to “love one another, as I have loved you” we must be aware of how we think of ourselves and how we speak of ourselves.
Lest we boast.
Because it’s not about us.
It’s all about Him.
He has earned it and he is worth it.
Boast away. But boast in the Lord.
So that others would know, too.
Every blessing
Doug
EASY CONSCIENCE BUT NO VICTORY?