Fake Glory

As I’ve observed folks over the years it occurred to me that people do what they do for glory. And when they don’t get glory, they get really upset and sometimes even go so far as to kill themselves.

Let me give me a simple illustration of what I’m talking about. Suppose a two-year-old wants the truck his little brother is playing with, so he walks over and snatches it. What is he doing? Well, he wants what he wants and nothing, at least nothing small, is going to stand in his way to get it. Suppose no one is around to change the outcome, the little fellow gets the truck and is happy with it for a time. There are a number of other scenarios we can think of along these lines.

Suppose he gets the truck, but what he really wanted was to keep his brother from having it. He only wanted it because his brother had it in the first place. We see this clearly when, after he gets it, he puts it aside after having it for only a few seconds. The point wasn’t the truck at all, it was that his brother had it and he didn’t.

Suppose, his mother is in the room and hears the little brother’s reaction to having his truck taken. Her reaction is to run over and snatch it away from the two-year-old and give it back to the little one. Now, how does the older child react? He is most likely grumpy and angry and may take his anger out on the younger brother later. Or he might respond with a tantrum or some other behavior that shows his displeasure at his mother’s act.

Suppose, the two-year-old actually wanted the truck and he takes it and plays with it for an hour. He believes he owns the truck and has the authority to take it from his brother and so he does with no reprisal. It’s his right.

There are probably a million other subtle ways the scenario might play out, but what is common in each of these examples? The two-year-old is the center of his universe and wants what he wants because no one else matters more than his current will. The last example clearly shows what he thinks about his place in the universe, but the other situations show that while he didn’t get the truck, he believed he should have had it because of what he believes about himself.

He deserves it. The world owes it to him and even in the example where he didn’t really want the truck, he needed, because of his place in the universe, to control it the situation.

What does this have to do with glory?

Well suppose we change the outcomes of these examples. In the first one, the younger brother sees the two-year-old coming and gets all excited at his coming and joyfully hands the truck over. What is the two-year-old’s response? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this before, but my guess is that the two-year-old will feel buoyed up by the expression of submission by his brother. The praise, or reaction of praise, will puff him up and he will feel vindicated in his rightful place in the universe. This would be true even if he didn’t really want the truck. It was really an expression of wanting his brother to not have it and for him to bow down and recognize his older brother’s superiority.

In the second example, suppose their mother had, heard the commotion and had coming running and yelled at the younger brother for not simply giving his truck to the two-year-old. So, instead of standing up for the younger victim of the theft, she explained to him that he needed to give the truck to his brother because he is so wonderful, and he needs to get whatever he thinks is owed him. The older brother would continue to feel superior and again would be vindicated in what he did because it was owed to him.

In these examples, it is easy to see that he is receiving glory from his little brother and his mother. Glory is fame, or enlargement. When we give someone glory, we make them famous. We make them larger. We praise them, we exult in them. We get all excited in their presence. We talk highly of them with others. We write and then sing songs about and to them. We follow them and imitate them; and invite others to join us. This is what was happening in the second examples.

But it is also what was causing the trouble in the first examples. The two-year-old thought he should be getting glory and he wasn’t, so he caused a ruckus about it, hoping to change things to his advantage. If his mother takes the truck away from him, and he throws a tantrum, his mother might give him what he wanted. There’s always a chance. But it is all about glory. It’s all about who he thinks he is and wants others to agree with him and even promote it to and about him.

Glory and the fear (or reality) of not getting it is behind all disobedience and rebellion against God. Why else would anyone not do what God says to do? On the other hand, if I’m the center of the universe, who is God to tell me what to do? People often don’t believe that it is God telling them to do things. They will say, “I don’t know what God thinks, but I do know that you aren’t him and I’m not going to bow to your interpretation of what God says.” But really, it’s all about not wanting to bow the knee to God. It’s all about not wanting to share glory with anyone or anything else.

If God did not exist and had not created the world to be the way it is, this might be a right way to think. Though words like right don’t make sense in a world where there is no one higher than us to determine what right and wrong is. Which is tempting me to run off on a rabbit trail, but I’m not going to go there.

But God does exist, and he did make the world the way he made it. Consequently, we almost never get to be the pilot of our own lives. We almost constantly run into people and situations where our lordship is challenged by others. This very often comes from others who also want to run their own ships, which causes even more trouble because “if I can’t be the glorious one, you certainly don’t get to.”

There’s another element to this that needs to be pointed out. Because of the way God made the world, glory is fleeting. It never sticks. If the two-year-old got the truck, even in the best scenario, because his brother cheerfully with high praise, gave it to him, he would only be happy for a few minutes at most. He would need more praise, more accolades, more worship. Glory just doesn’t last. Human glory is temporary at best.

This happens for two reasons: first, because God made the world in such a way that he is supposed to get the glory and he won’t share glory with another (Isa 42:8). And second, because the two-year-old knows down in his bones that he doesn’t deserve the glory he’s striving after. He doesn’t really believe his press releases. He knows he hasn’t earned it; he isn’t really all that great, or handsome, or big, or best, or smart, or whatever. He knows down deep in his heart that he is a sham, a usurper, a rebel.

And this is why, I believe, that many people kill themselves. They know they aren’t what they pretend to be or think they should be. They may have all the money and fame in the world, but the fame doesn’t last. It can’t last. And even if they have risen from horrible childhoods, and they have all the money anyone could have, they know they aren’t what they think they should be and they can’t ever get real fame. It just won’t last or be enough. And people who don’t have money or the world’s fame, often kill themselves for the same reasons.

We hear that people who attempt to kill themselves are really crying out for help. But what help do they want? The help they want is for others to recognize who they are. They want to be praised. They want to be thought highly of and to be recognized. They want their self-worth to be affirmed. They want fame. They want glory. But people cannot give one another the kind of glory that lasts. We don’t deserve it and consequently it is short lived and fake.

But the fact that the world is so full of glory should tell us that while we’re looking in all the wrong places, it does exist. Look at a Palouse sunset and all you see is glory. It is almost impossible and only the hardest hearts can resist praising the God of that glory for its beauty and grandeur. New babies, fuzzy puppies, little girls with pink sparkly flash-flash shoes, little boys with frogs. All glorious and all pointing to the One who made it all.

Matthew 11:28-30

Picture by Darren Doan