For a quick review, here are links to the previous posts in "The Story in Song" series.
Part 1 | The Love of God
Part 2 | Warrior
Part 3 | Nicodemus
Part 4 | The City
Part 5 | Walk with Me
Part 6 | How Long
If God is an anchor we can humbly rely on, there is no need for (8) Boasting in ourselves. But we do. Without turning to God to give our worship to, we quickly revert to worshiping ourselves in one form or another.
David Foster Wallace – an award-winning American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and professor at Pomona College who wrote the novel Infinite Jest, which was cited as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005 by Time magazine – is considered by most to be a prominent voice for this generation. In 2005, he gave an address to the graduates at Kenyon College that is one of the best in recent years. You can read the full speech in the Wall Street Journal. He said:
...Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely talk about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness, because it’s so socially repulsive, but it’s pretty much the same for all of us, deep down. It is our default-setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth...
...here’s something else that’s true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on...
With his words, David Foster Wallace provides a prophetic glimpse into our minds, while also affirming what Nietzsche said about our hearts: "The human heart is an idol factory." We're going to worship something. It's just a matter of what.
Can't live without exercise? You may worship your appearance. Have to stay on top of the news and advancements in science? Your intellect may be your god. Have to be able to control others' perception of your life? You serve your pride. Who we are, how the world is, and what we are doing to make ourselves and everyone around us better – all these things can become idols. And all of these things are eating us alive.
But honestly, how often would I rather feed my idols than surrender to the possibility that I owe Someone my worship? Deep down, I know I don't have control over anything. I don't know what tomorrow will bring. Sometimes I don't even know how I can face today. But too often I'd rather keep faking it hoping I will somehow "arrive" as the better version of me rather than ask my Creator to change me from the inside out.
In the meantime, to save face and to keep churning, I boast. Nothing too evident, but whose to say how often I secretly pride myself in how I'm different than this person, and at least I'm better than that person. It's not that I even have to say it – thinking it is enough to turn on the worship of me. And the truth is written on my face when someone says something I think is incorrect. When push comes to shove, I might even voice my displeasure and "superior" perspective on my Facebook wall. Or a blog post.
Let's be honest. Don't we all do this? In one way or another, we find the right to tell others – either in person or in our minds – how to live their lives. And in turn, we often tell God how to run His creation. But trying to take the reigns of a life and a world only God can maintain feels like being caught in a vortex.
Jesus tells us there's a way out of this lethal circle of needing to self satisfy and self promote. But it will take a supernatural gift of humility that turns worship away from ourselves.
We could turn to other religions. But my heart's desire is to make a case for you and me to turn to J.C. (as Foster Wallace mentions him in his speech). Jesus not only asks us to turn to Him and seek His kingdom, He gives us His grace to help us turn away from worshiping ourselves. When we concede to His control and follow His lead – the only One who can make us strong in life and in death – we rise with Him like a phoenix.
He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – Saint Paul (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
Looking forward to reflecting on Parts 9 and 10 | Run in the Night and Found next week. We'll see how Jesus strengthens us – no matter where we live or who we serve in our city – to strive on with Him even in the darkest hour.
– Sully
As always, if your curiosity is piqued, or something inside you is being stirred, feel free to connect.
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