Part 2 of the series ‘Desert Spirituality’
Submitted to Red Rock News for 11/08/24
- Rev. Dona Johnson |November 3, 2024
Have you ever padded your resume when searching for a job? Resume padding is quite a common practice these days—the practice of adding untrue or exaggerated information to your resume to make your accomplishments look greater than they are. A recent LinkedIn survey reports that 72% of job applicants lie on their resumes, while 68% percent lie during their interviews. They lie mostly about academic achievements.
Have you ever heard the phrase ‘vain glory’? In Christian circles it is known as a vice, an excessive elation or pride over one’s own achievements and abilities. Today’s culture sees a person’s worth, value and usefulness in society based on their success and accomplishments, so much so that they are willing to inflate and stretch the truth about themselves. It is such a great temptation to glorify ourselves by exaggerating how good we are. This also happens in every facet of life. A great example of this is our social media hits. We’re so hungry for ‘likes.’ Many of us feel so accepted and important when we receive a great number of likes for our posts.
But all in all, vain glory is a relational issue. Most of us crave affirmation, applause and appreciation. We want so desperately to be loved and liked. Being known, being recognized, being appreciated and acknowledged — these are the things we people live for. So, where do we go wrong? When we put ourselves on display, show off and inflate our goodness, we are actually at that point of manufacturing glory for ourselves by putting ourselves out there, says Rebecca DeYoung, author of Glittering Vices. You might say, we either don’t trust or acknowledge the deep affirmation that has already been given to us by God. Very early, as children we learn to brag about ourselves.
And Christians have no immunity to bragging and seeking a name for themselves. “I am the lead pastor of a growing church; we’re worshiping 150 on Sunday.” Or how about this, “I baptized fifteen people on Sunday.” Or what about this, “I am good person, I would never do something like that, I am not one of those kinds of people.”
Paul in both Romans and Ephesians makes it clear, we are always in every way and every circumstance to give praise and glory to God for our faith, for the grace and countless blessings God continues to shower us with, even as we sin. “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Ro 1:17). “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8- 9). Now faith produces works, no doubt about it but those works and our achievements do not produce salvation, it is faith alone that produces righteousness in us.
The early church Fathers likened vain glory to peeling back an onion. Every time you peel back a layer, another layer of vanity stares you in the face. DeYoung continues, “Augustine’s and Aquinas’s moral insight is that every vice is a sham substitute for some good thing that we try to self-manufacture, rather than receiving as a gift from God. What’s the good we hunger for when tempted by vainglory? Being known and loved. We long for the attentive love of others.”
So once again, the vice or call it the weakness or flaw of vain glory comes down to love. That is what every human being longs for—to be fully known, imperfections and all and also truly loved. As those who follow in the footsteps of Jesus, there is no longer a need to brag, promote ourselves, justify our goodness and compete against others. Faith alone gives us a holy identity with an eternal destiny—that far out weights any worldly gains we seek. God’s love for us is fiercely unconditional and his grace is inexhaustible.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to see my worth and value not in competing with my neighbor or all my attempts to self-promote how good I am, but you alone make me good, in you alone is where I find my true value and an eternal purpose. Amen.
We will be starting a new series Desert Spirituality with Chris Hall from Renovare. In this series we will explore the nine vices (or sins) with virtues that bring life.
- Rev. Dona Johnson |November 3, 2024