These labels I don't really remember very well, not because I have a low self-image, but because of the context of trying to stroke my ego rather than pay me a compliment, so they are significantly less important to me. What happens if I embrace the positive labels imposed upon me as this great man? Well, lets use the “great man of God” label for this example. Now I have to find ways to create an illusion of this great man. So I watch men like Billy Graham, or Kenneth Copeland, or Jesse Duplantis, or others who act a certain way, or talk a certain way, or know certain things. I read intensely and memorize scripture down to the letter. I memorize doctrines and man-made rules. Then I learn to speak with authority.
But because this is an illusion, all it takes is that damned cairn terrier, and my whole clown show comes crashing down. You say something that offends me, and I have to defend myself with anger and “righteous indignation” to make you shut the hell up. Luckily I am better researched than you are, but you now know what is my substance. So I slap a label on the jerk that dared to challenge such a great man as myself: asshole, rebel, demon.
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” I scream at the audience I have built up for years. Then I return to frantically pumping levers and turning knobs.
What would have made me any greater a man of God than saying, “Lord, that's all on you. I will speak and write what you tell me. Help me not to fail. I'm just here.”? Only one thing would make me greater than that: doing so immediately.
Now, many who read this are likely not to be believers. My hope is that you don't simply dismiss that illustration because the same principle applies to any positive label. Regardless of anything someone tells me, I must remain humble enough to know that whatever label one places on in me is simply reflective of their subjective opinion of me, not reflective of me objectively. I'm not a “great man,” I am simply a man; “great” is subjective. Then there are no levers to pump, no knobs to turn, no threat from a yapping dog.
One person might call me “a great man of God,” but that doesn't necessarily mean that I am a great man of God. It is more likely to mean either that I am the greatest he has personally met, or that he simply wants to stroke my ego to get me inflated for a fall later on. Another might say I'm the wisest man they know, but the truth of that statement is that they just need to get out more. So long as I maintain this type of a mindset, then I don't get exhausted from working fiendishly behind a curtain I hope no one sees. Why? Because I am who I am, not what others see in me.
