The Idol in the Mirror

You've been around them, probably. The ones who are constantly talking about themselves. Drives you crazy, doesn't it? Me too.

Saturday Night Live had a series of skits with Kristen Wiig starring as "Penelope," the girl that had to one-up everyone's stories. If she overheard you talking about your uncle, the astronaut, she'd butt in with her story about her trip to Mars. It was fairly entertaining, as most of us have been around "that person" before.

I think there is a narcissist inside all of us, however, wanting out. Left unchecked, with nothing to remind us that are real successes and failures, advantages and disadvantages, triumphs and tragedies outside of ourselves, most (if not all) of us have a tendency to admire ourselves for our "greatness," or we do the really weird thing and grant ourselves points for how much worse off we have had it.

Genesis 11 tells the story of the Tower of Babel. The way Eugene Peterson puts in The Message is interesting:

"Then they said, 'Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let's make ourselves famous so we won't be scattered here and there across the Earth.'"

People build cities for a sense of community. Jerry Seinfeld jokes about all the land surrounding New York City, and yet everyone crams themselves into that city because they'd rather literally live on top of each other. That's not wrong on its own.

The tower reaching Heaven? Without some idea of why they were building it, it's hard to judge it as wrong. We're still doing things like that now all the time.

It's the "Let's make ourselves famous..." part that is problematic. "Fame" is to be well-known and talked about for ones notable achievements. Now, this is odd. When I read this passage, it occurs to me that everyone is pretty much still living in the same place. They are all pretty much starting to work on, more or less, the same thing. It almost seems like they wanted something to congratulate themselves on, to unify around their own creations. They wanted to be able to talk about how great they were and how foolish it would be to disperse.

Here's the thing. According to God, they'd never stop doing this. They'd keep achieving, keep patting themselves on the back, and keep building themselves up as great until they'd see no need for Him.

We have a narcissist in us that would love to get out. He'd love to look in the mirror and congratulate himself for his work, even his "work for the Lord." She'd love to be able to see how much better she is than the other girl at work, or at church. He'd smile over how "sinless" he has become, and how he is helping God make the decision to "come sooner."

That narcissist sees herself in her own skin and compares herself to others, judging them as clearly inferior and less-desirable. He may even think to himself, "My world would be perfect if '______' wasn't in it."

You see the fingerprints of narcissism--self-idolization--in all kinds of things: racism, sexism, and abuse, addictions, but maybe even in overachievement, workaholism, and rehearsing the good things you've done for others.

So learn the lesson of the inhabitants of Shinar. The idol's gotta go! My fame is nothing. God's fame is everything. Lift your eyes and thoughts above the mirror and spend time looking at God. Look at Christ Himself, the best "image" of God you'll ever see. Take regular note--write it down on the mirror if you must--of what He has done. He must increase. We must decrease. When Christ is who we witness, we become our true, and our best, selves.