Wanting To Be Admired
Do we desire to be important? Do we want to be admired by others? Some of the time, to some degree, I think we all want this. After all, none of us have been completely freed of a worldly mind (Eph 4:22-23) that includes the ‘pride of life’ (1 Jn 2:15-16). This seems to be overconfidence, boasting, and pride in our way of life or in our possessions (AB). Thus, we want others to fawn over us as though we are superior to them and are oh so important even apart from any reliance on God (Wagner, The Sensation Of Being Somebody, p 212). We desire for others to treat us as though we are god-like even when we are indifferent toward and in rebellion against Almighty God. However, “The highest form of vanity is love of fame” (George Santayana).
The Christian is to always seek to reduce proud worldliness in favor of humble dependence on God – with this leading to right behavior as the Lord defines that. We are to disregard our own interests and say ‘No!’ to our self-centeredness (Mt 10:38-39). Our focus is not to be on status but on doing God’s will (1 Jn 2:17) because only those who habitually do His will, out of their saving faith in Him, will be allowed to live with God in the next life (Mt 7:21-23).
Is it wrong, then, to have dreams? Are we to never want to transcend what we could easily believe we could accomplish in life? I think the answer to both questions is ‘No.’ Surely, the Lord would have given each of us a life dream, a desire to be all we were appointed to be. Why wouldn’t He want us to believe that we, even we, could do greater works than Christ (Jn 14:12) and could have mountain-moving faith (Mk 11:23-24)? The key, though, is to submit every longing, dream, goal – every aspect of our life – to the Lord, pursuing what He wants for us when and how He wants it. Then we are in submission, not rebellion. Then we can be more confident that our dreams are, at least in the main, from Him.
Unending pleasure in the next life; training for godly pleasure in this one.