Boasting

Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you...

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit”—you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.” But now you are boasting in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.   -James 4:10,13-16

 

One of the most toxic elements of social media is that it promotes boasting.

 

Social media is heavily tilted toward self-promotional chest-beating that shills the the awesomeness of the writer. The writer becomes invested in protecting that image as soon he or she utters, writes or records-on-video those thoughts. The toxin becomes increasingly virulent with each step in technology.

 

"I can make a man do anything" results in the person who says it cutting every man out of their life with the gumption or good-sense to push back. Much of the boasting on the internet seems to be some form of that phrase. Not, "I am going to plant a garden" or "I am going to learn to rebuild Perkins diesel engines" or "I signed up to visit less mobile senior citizens". Nope. It is mostly "I don't have to work because I am going to manipulate people to get what I want."

 

"They are dead to me" means that they delete their numbers from their phone and send their messages to spam. They cannot know of it is a job offer, announcing the death of a friend or perhaps reaching out to see if reconciliation is possible. 

The Bible says "...you cannot make a single hair white or black" -Matt 5:36 A little bit of humility goes a long way.

A joke on boasting

Four boys were bragging about their fathers.

Andy's dad worked in the factory and he started out "My dad is so fast that he can shoot an arrow, drop the bow and catch the arrow before it hits the target." He smiled smugly, sure that none of the other boys could top that story.

Billy's dad was an electrician. "That is nothing. My dad can shoot a 30-06 (rifle) and catch the bullet with his teeth."

Not to be outdone, Chad said "That is nothing. My dad works for the government and he is so fast that he gets out of work for the weekend at 6:00 PM on Friday and we are always driving up the the lake by 11:00 AM on Thursday."

They all looked at Davy with pity. His mom was on welfare. Davy said "My daddy is so fast that I been living here 12 years and have three baby sisters and ain't nobody ever seen him, not even me!" 

So...remember when folks around you start boasting, there are a lot more Chads and Davies than Andy and Billies. Keep your mouth shut. Nod. Make a mental note of their...flexible...memory and creativity around the truth. The Davy with the lowest self-esteem tells the biggest whoppers and gets the angriest when challenged.