“Before you blink your one life’s a tendril of smoke, a memory, a vapor, gone, know this: you are where you are for such a time as this – NOT TO MAKE AN IMPRESSION BUT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. WE AREN’T HERE TO ONE-UP ANOTHER BUT TO HELP ANOTHER UP.” (Ann Voskamp, “The Broken Way”)
Over the years, I have watched again and again others wanting their name and prestige to rise above everyone else. I have seen this in the business world and in the church. Honestly, I would expect it in one but the other, I would hope it wasn’t the case.
I get we are human – broken – all of us. We make mistakes and we hurt people. We fall into the trap of “me” – thinking we know best, thinking we are better and thinking we deserve it all.
And yet, we are called to be humble – to embody the humility of Christ – simplicity, service, and sacrifice. True humility often brings the resistance from people. Read the Gospels of the resistance Christ encountered. Pride brings resistance from God. I don’t know about you, but I would rather face the resistance of people than of God.
Pride comes in two movements of the heart – A false sense of superiority (superbia in Greek) or a vainglory (kenodoxia in Greek). In other words, we think we are better than others so we act that way (a sense of superiority) or we want others to think more of us than we are so we can receive the vainglory (or as it means in Greek “empty glory”) from people. These two movements of the heart let you make an impression, but you will never make a difference. Difference making comes from humility.
Matthew 7:21-23 lets us know that we can do many things in the “name of the Lord.” Good things like miracles and prophesies. And yet, when we stand before Him and cry out “Lord, Lord” He may say, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.” These are not the words I want to hear. Impression making is not my concern – difference making is. So, I battle the movements of pride daily. Some days are better than others. Prayerfully, each day is better than the last.
