I remember well the day that my oldest daughter was faced with the realities of false boasting of advertisers.
It was the Butterfly Barbie. She was shown on the TV advertisements flying through the air (not a hair out of place), her sparkling wings looking gossamer soft. What we brought home from the store required human assistance to soar, and her soft-looking wings had a plastic backing. A great learning opportunity that purchase was for this budding consumer.
False boasting of advertisers have always existed. Whether it is a toy, a hamburger, wrinkle cream or weight loss plan these cons are everywhere, leading people, and their hard-earned money, astray.
It is such a relief that false boasts do not exist in the Christian community …
Go visit a Christian book store, and you will find the equivalent of a ‘self help’ section. Attend a Christian conference, and you will leave believing that ‘you’ can do anything. Show up at a Christ-centered church on any given Sunday, and you will be reminded of the boundless power of the Holy Spirit within you.
So, are those examples of (well-intended) false boasting?
Lets check the king of understanding what it is to boast …
The apostle Paul (I like him), he was a man who refused to boast about what he did, what he would do or what he could do. As a matter of fact 2 Corinthians 12:5 tells us what he would and would not boast about :
“I will not boast about myself,
except about my weaknesses.”
Hum, ever been to church and heard someone get up and boast about their weaknesses?
Ever been to a Christian conference where the key note speaker addressed weaknesses?
Ever bought a how-to book at the Christian bookstore that explained how to share your weaknesses?
I’m doubting that any of us has experienced that sort of boasting.
Maybe this is why, when non-believers are asked why they do not go to church, a common response is hypocrisy. According to and article in USA Today, a “survey of U.S. adults who don’t go to church, even on holidays, finds 72% say “God, a higher or supreme being, actually exists.” But just as many (72%) also say the church is “full of hypocrites.””
Are we being humbly real?
Or are we pretending that we have it all together?
Our friend, Paul, goes on to explain his rationale regarding boasting about his weaknesses in verses 6-10 :
“Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.“
Don’t we all have a thorn in our flesh?
We do not know what Paul’s thorn was, but we know that Paul used this painful (thorns hurt) thing to keep him depending on God to be his strength in weakness.
I’m not sure that I could have such a positive perspective on pain … I’m not sure that Paul did ALL THE TIME … but I do know that when I am struggling, when I am in pain, when I am hurting, it is then that I rely more on God.
Maybe others need to see, not the lie of perfect lives, but the reality of pain …
and that it can draw us to our heavenly Father, so that His “power is made perfect in weakness”
Boast in this :
we are weak
He is perfect
There’s nothing false about that!
itsawonderfilledlife 