Self-Awareness: I Can Be Deceived About My Power

The story goes that during the 1960 U. S. Presidential primaries, candidates John F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, and Lyndon B. Johnson were all chatting. “Gentlemen, you won’t believe the dream I had last night,” Kennedy said, “I dreamed that God tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Jack, I’m going to make you the next president of the United States.’” “Is that so?” Humphrey replied. “Because last night I dreamed that God tapped me on the shoulder and told me the same thing!” Not to be outdone, Johnson broke in, “That’s a funny thing, boys. I don’t remember tapping either of you on the shoulder last night.” It’s safe to say that each man—whether he believed that he was God’s anointed or the Almighty Himself—had a distorted view of himself! We all can. But if we’re going to have wise joy in this broken world, we all need to see ourselves more clearly. I need self-awareness.

The first thing that I need to know about me is that I can be deceived about my power (15–18). I may not be quite on Lyndon Johnson’s level, but I do enjoy feeling like I’m in control! When my house is stuffy, I can punch a button on my thermostat to lower the temperature in moments. With a single group text or “Remind” message, I can instantly communicate to hundreds of people. We even have a robot vacuum cleaner programmed to sweep through our house! Because I enjoy a sense of power, I love Solomon’s other book, Proverbs. Life is so neat, clean, and predictable there. God has given rules. If I keep those rules, life will be good; if I break them, it won’t. Work hard, you get promoted. Discipline your kids, they’ll love God. Lie, no one will trust you. 2+2=4. It makes sense. It’s fair. It’s predictable. I feel “in control.”

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, "weeelll…it may be a little more complicated than that." It turns out I don’t have as much power or control as I thought. V15: “In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.” Proverbs explains how life usually works in God’s moral universe. Ecclesiastes shows us that the picture is often a good bit messier. It often doesn’t make sense. Godly people who play by the rules get cancer, lose their jobs, and watch their kids rebel. Meanwhile, the wicked prosper. Life in our world can be unpredictable and unfair.

V16–18 warn against extreme responses: “Do not be overly righteous and do not make yourself too wise” (16). Before you adopt this as your life verse, in context it means, “I can’t control my life by being righteous.” For instance, parents can’t ensure that their kids will turn out exactly like they want just because they raise them in church and keep all the rules in the parenting books. Tithing, reading your Bible, and keeping your nose clean will not mean that God “owes” you a trouble-free life. I can’t control my life by being “overly righteous.”

But then there’s the other extreme: “Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?” (17) No, I can’t control my life by being really good. But giving up and being a hellion isn’t the answer! If I lie, cheat, steal, am adulterous, violent, and get addicted to drugs, then guess what will happen? That good old black-and-white world of Proverbs will kick in. I’ll wind up dead before my time!

Wisdom avoids both of these extremes (18). I accept that this world is broken, that I’m not home yet, and so bad things will happen, no matter what. I can’t control my life. My good behavior won’t exempt me from pain. But being a wicked fool isn’t the way to go either! Instead, I’ve got to fear God, knowing that he is in control of the story. I need to keep his commands, trust him, and then enjoy my imperfect life.

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church