A Different Story

Day 4 – 12 Days of Community

My dad does not officially blog. Every now and again we like to cut him loose from the comment box and give him a guest spot. Though he has no blog of his own (I like to think of him as sort of a Blogger Emeritus), I’m featuring him for Day 4 of the 12 Days of Community we’re celebrating at High Calling Blogs. Dad previously posted for us on keeping performance in perspective and  stepping out from behind the mask. He writes for us again today.

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by Paul Willingham

As I drove home from church on a recent Sunday, I noted that one of the billboards along Highway 7 had been updated with a new message.  In true billboard fashion it only contained eight words so that we could read, process and absorb the message before we blew past it at highway speed.  The sponsor is a huge nationally known shopping center here in the Twin Cities.  The eight words “FALL IN LOVE WITH YOURSELF ALL OVER AGAIN”.

I thought about those words as I continued on home.  It sort of exemplifies the attitude of the “Me Generation” that social commentators, preachers and others decry as symptomatic of much of today’s cultural and social ills.

There is a great deal of self absorption prevalent in society today.  Our self esteem is dramatically affected, defined and driven by externals; how we look, what we do for a living, what kind and how many automobiles we own, the newest iphone on our belt, etc.  We are into tummy tucks, face lifts, Botox, breast enhancement, liposuction, Hair Club for Men, contact lenses,  and on and on.

For folks like me, all of these enhancements wouldn’t make a whit of difference anyway.  It would be like the fellow who paid $2,000 for the cure for halitosis and then found out people didn’t like him anyway.  I remember a comedian on the radio (yes, the first electronic medium after the telegraph and telephone, before TV, cell phones and the internet) commenting that a woman he knew had had a face lift but that she looked like the jack had slipped.

As I thought about the billboard, I was reminded of the Lord’s words to Samuel when he was selecting a king to replace Saul in I Samuel 16:7.

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the Heart.”

We may not want to admit it but we all are affected by vanity, some of us more than others.  We spend way too much time on looking good to the world, which is fleeting and not enough time getting in tune with God.  We want people to think well of us, and unfortunately, those judgments are made on tangible things we can see.  I’m not suggesting that we live like slobs and look and dress like bums and neither is God.  He expects us to think well of ourselves.  After all, He created us in his image.  Jesus admonished us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and we can’t do a very good job of that if we see ourselves in an unflattering light.

Life is a balancing act.  We need a healthy dose of humility so that we don’t get caught up in the web of vanity.  Listen to the words of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 1:2. Vanities of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Ecclesiastes 1:12-14 goes on:

I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.  And I applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given the sons of men to be busy with.  I have seen everything that is done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. (RSV)

I find it interesting that the translators of the NIV substituted the word meaningless for vanity in verses 2 and 14.  Vanity is meaningless.  If we have only fallen in love with ourselves, we have completely misdirected our love.  Song writer Phil Kerr has a better suggestion than the Mall of America billboard on where to direct our love.

I’ve found a lover, He loves me so.
Jesus who died for me.
Bears all my burdens, sorrow and woe,
Loving and kind is He.

Chorus:
I’m in love, deeply in love, with the Lover of my soul;
I will sing praise to my King while the years of eternity roll;
His love is in my heart never to depart,
His blood has made me whole,
I’m in love with Jesus; He’s the Lover of my soul.

Now, that’s a real cure for vanity.

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About Paul: My dad is a retired CPA living in the Twin Cities with my amazing mom. He is granddad to three boys and five girls and is an occasional golfer, skilled carpenter, accomplished handyman and master chef. He gets together with his 101-year old dad each week to work out their latest life-enhancing contraptions and home improvement projects. It goes without saying (even though I’m saying it) that my dad and mom follow Jesus well.

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