Wouldn’t it be great if we could reduce the suffering in the world by 50%? George MacDonald said, “Half the misery in the world comes from trying to look, instead of trying to be, what one is not.” MacDonald was not giving a carefully researched statistic in this case, but would any of us deny what he was trying to express? If we stop trying to make a false impression, it might really reduce the world’s misery by 50%. It would certainly reduce our misery.
There has always been a lot of pretending. Facebook did not cause the problem; it just gave us a faster forum for pretending. Proverbs 13:7 tells us, “One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.” Many of us want to appear to be something we are not.
Of course, we should not attempt to become or attempt to appear to be rich, for “those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1 Tim 6:9). But there are many things we are attempting to appear that we could and should attempt to become.
Several years ago, I read the biography of a man who had become rich (by legal but dishonest means). Toward the end of his life, he made a big splash by giving away all his money. He wanted to appear generous. But before giving away “all” his wealth, he first transferred about $3,000,000 into his wife’s name. He had not really given it all away. He wanted to appear more generous than he really was. He would have been better off to have given what he did give honestly, without pretending that it was all.
What are we pretending? Are we pretending to be generous, hard-working, devout? What if we stopped pretending? What if we admitted to ourselves, to others, and to God that we are not generous, hard-working, or devout? What if, instead of posturing, we admitted our failings and sought to become what we are not? We do not really have to wonder what the result would be. Jesus tells us.
"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:10-14 ESV)
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