Self Important Saints

Some days I feel pretty spiritual. Other days, I have a better grip on reality, and I feel more like those church people in Laodicea who made God want to throw up. You remember, Christ warned those proud worshipers, "You're neither hot nor cold- just room temperature, pretty much like a corpse. And, pardon the expression, but I think I'm going to vomit!" Okay, so that was my personal translation of the Greek.

I belong to this generation of self-important saints. I don't know, but maybe you belong to that same generation. We are the people who made Anna Nicole Smith a star... and Lindsay Lohan... and all those people on The Hills. We belong to the multitudes who empowered Twitter to become a global phenom. We can be motivated to spend money by a phrase as banal as "Whazzup?" And with achievements as grandiose as those, we have this tendency to talk about ourselves as though our restless lives are jammed with activities that are really important! Even in the church, we tend to self-inflate. We talk only about the truly significant issues- things like:

• Engaging the culture: This is not happening, unless it means that we are asking the culture to marry us so we can be more intimate.
• Standing for Justice: Sympathizing with the plight of child sex slaves in Sri Lanka while consuming a $5 cup of coffee and a $4 pastry, and idly pondering a mission trip to Chile may be classified as sitting for something, but not standing for anything, least of all justice.
• Making the Gospel Relevant: When most Americans admire Jesus but think church people are out of touch, unhappy and deluded, perhaps it's not the Gospel that needs a makeover.

Our man Paul never considered himself important. To the contrary, he often compared his own accomplishments to filthy rags or even dung, and he labeled himself the chief of sinners. If he had ever once deceived himself into thinking that the salvation of the world depended on his ability to engage the culture, he would have done a 180 and gone home to pray for a better plan.

I get convicted when I read the things Paul talked about. Writing to his friends in Ephesus, he rambled on for whole paragraphs, elaborating on the magnificence and boundless generosity of God. Read Ephesians 1 before you go to bed tonight. God has blessed us; chosen us; adopted us, predestined us, enlightened us, loved us, united us, forgiven us, etc., etc. God has enriched us, lavished good things upon us, revealed things to us, and offered us an inheritance. Paul simply could not get over all the supernatural splendor God had already invested in his life and his destiny.

You and I think nothing of suggesting God should find us a parking place in a crowded mall, as though a shopping trip is momentous; as though the Mind & Voice behind the universe can be reduced to the status of parking valet by my amazing faith! An honest, clear thinking person would call that self-importance.

I gotta confess: I'm not smart enough to engage the culture. And I'm not so special that God should find me a parking place at Starbuck's in the morning. And I wish I weren't so depraved that my flesh can still seduce me with delusions like that after all these years. On my best day, all I am is an unworthy servant of the Most High God. That's not false modesty: just honesty.

I'll never be very important, but God doesn't need important people- or famous ones. So I pray to God again today and ask him for the wisdom to bow my knee to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us! To him be glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Lord, help me elevate my thoughts, crucify my flesh, and set my affections on Christ.