Ego is a powerful thing! Self-discovery begins so early!
Have you watched an infant discover his/her toes – even fingers? At that stage,
it seems that everything new gets the ‘taste-test’ – it goes right to the
mouth! 😂 Almost everything is new to this new-born!
S/he is on a journey of discovery and self-identification that will continue
unabated throughout life!
I’ve been seeing a series of ‘reels’ lately where a tiny little girl stands nose-to-nose with a huge, furry, friendly dog. She screams in his face as she scolds him. He could easily shove her to the side with his powerful front legs, but he just stands there and submits to her supposed authority with an occasional ‘woof!’ of response. I laugh when I see it because of this little girl’s early audacity to think that she is the lord of this massive family pet! Such is the ego of young children who are still learning and growing.
As we grow, we increasingly come to think that the world revolves around ‘us’! This is because we are the center of our experience!
As childhood emerges into the adolescence years the process continues as the young person begins to distinguish him/herself through the self-identification process. With a fully developed personality by age seven, this child continues to grow, learn, explore as they approach adulthood and the realization of accepting responsibility for the direction of their life! It can be an awesome experience; it can also be terrifying.
BUT THIS IS NOT A PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATISE, BUT A THEOLOGICAL ONE!
If somewhere along this child’s path they are introduced to the love of a divine Savior, they may begin a whole new process with a completely different foundation! If they embrace the reality of a God-directed life, then they – like so many of us – begin to explore the meaning of a totally different way of being!
Many have anchored their thinking – after serious reflection on the words of the Apostle Paul – found in Galatians 2:19-21 [TM]:
[Paul
writing] What actually took
place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and
it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could
be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I
identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified
with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important
that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no
longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is
not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
Is it not clear to you that to
go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an
abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I
refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace.
It has been pictured as follows:
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Today, I discovered a good biblical picture of this process in the life of King David in II Samuel’s closing chapters.
David is old! He’s living in the latter days of his life.
His kingdom has just survived an attempted coo by his son, Absalom! As
David resettles into the palace and the routines of being king over a massive
accrual of subordinate nations, David falls prey to his own pride.
The beauty of all biblical characters is the fact that they are all one-hundred percent human – just like us! The great, highly admired King David falters – just like we often do!
He sits one day and wonders how many fighting soldiers he has between Israel and Judah? “Hmmm. I’ll bet it’s a pretty high number! I think I’ll have them counted!” [he muses].
David orders Joab – his army commander – to take others and move throughout Israel and Judah to count those men. Joab sees the foolishness of the task and resists the order, but ultimately submits. After nearly ten months,
“…they canvassed the whole
country and…arrived back in Jerusalem. Joab gave the results of the census to
the king: 800,000 able-bodied fighting men in Israel; in Judah 500,000…But when it was all done, David was overwhelmed with
guilt because he had counted the people, replacing trust with
statistics. And David prayed to God, ‘I have sinned
badly in what I have just done. But now God forgive my guilt—I’ve
been really stupid’” [II Samuel
24:9,10].
David’s pride got the best
of him!
It happens. To all of us from time-to-time.
Unfortunately for David, this error cost the lives of seventy thousand of his people who died from an epidemic initiated by God as punishment for David’s audacity! A horrible reality that caused David terrible grief and pain! It's also a reminder that leadership has increased responsibility!
Even in the midst of this punishment, David is careful to keep himself pure! He is told by Gad the prophet to
“Go and build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
When David attempts to buy this threshing floor from
Araunah, he tries to donate it to King David as a gift! But David is wise and
responds: “I’ve got to buy it from you for a good price; I’m
not going to offer GOD, my God, sacrifices that are no sacrifice…GOD
was moved by the prayers and that was the end of the disaster” [vs.24-25].
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We must be vigilant in keeping Christ on the throne of our lives and NOT assuming that role on our own! This is why we call Him LORD!
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