In and Within 13 Who Are We Trying to Impress Anyway?

[HKHaugan]

There are all kinds of little gems, pearls of wisdom that resonate within when you read or hear them. One came to me recently, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” Catchy phrasing from the world inlaid with temptation to consider it as wisdom. Like all so-called ‘pearls’ that tend to grab your attention we need to ask what it really means. Right away we know it’s a prayer thing and we need the Lord’s teaching to get our bearings. Let’s look at it for a moment. Consider three implications.

First, it seems to imply that we need to be really careful how we present ourselves to people we don’t know. True,---but in what way? If we think about it doesn’t it carry the scent of fear, fear that we are under social judgment, fear of not being accepted or acceptable or even accepting and if we make a mistake we are doomed from then on?

Second, it drives us inward to assess how we should present ourselves. In so doing we find that we tend to rely on worldly wisdom to get through the moment of meeting new people in a new place. It’s all up to me to immediately make a good impression. In that first meeting moment the world is on my shoulders. Got to get it right.

Third, world conditioning tells us there is a kind of acceptable social rhythm, a learnable routine we can step into when we are in a strange place among people we don’t know.

Those moments of ‘first impressions’ call us to open our worldly wisdom locker and pull out the proper garments to cover us, our momentary ‘fig leaf’ strategies. They are the steps we learn along the way, steps like an engaging smile, a strong handshake, ‘you have an interesting name,’ open a door for someone, look for a common point of interest and so on. Know how to make small talk interesting, thus we impress. Then, of course, having the right attire for whatever an occasion might require. Now, we think, ‘I’m covered, within and without. I’ve not only made a good impression on others, I’ve impressed myself. I can tell. It made me feel good. I’m in.”

But what has really happened in those moments? When you get right down to it, it’s all about control, taking control of every next moment in order to secure ourselves, in essence, saving ourselves. It is right here, at the moment when we are tempted to take control, that we apply Jesus’ teaching, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” So I pray, “O Lord, please let what is already there in your Kingdom take place in me, my mind, my heart, my spirit. I want you to be pleased; I want you to be seen, I want you to get the glory this moment offers.” This is what Jesus means when He tells us to take up our cross of faith every day. It is His Cross shining over the moment.

What the Lord is saying is that when we think of Him, when we exercise our belief in His presence, when we trust Him to use us and then act in faith, His Spirit will replace our self-centered will with His perfect loving will. It is those moments that are eternal moments, moments that may seem little and insignificant in worldly terms but in God’s eyes are the truly great moments. Jesus is clear here when He says “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much (Lk.16:10).”

What we need to understand is the depth of Jesus’ teaching here. What may seem a momentary personal choice and decision, an anonymous minute detail in an anonymous moment of personal experience, a dot in man’s history that will never be known, is a moment that to God has eternal significance and world reconciling potential. Neither we nor anyone else may ever remember it but being in the will of God is that different, that dramatic and that climactic. This is the enormous contrast between the mind of the world and the mind of God, between worldly wisdom and God’s eternal unchanging wisdom.

Every moment in the life of an individual carries the weight of eternity that we can’t possibly bear. These are Cross moments, moments Jesus comes to us and says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Mt.11:28).” Jesus went to the Cross for our moments, our every next moment, because every next moment is a moment of choice.

When Solomon asked God for wisdom it meant a discerning heart and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong his request was granted (1Kings 3:8-14). Solomon’s request was the forerunner to show the kind of wisdom Jesus brings to each of us. It is a kind of Sabbath rest in every next moment, a rest in which we shift from trying to control the moment ands save ourselves to letting the Lord Jesus have His way. This is the momentary moment of eternally eternal importance. The Lord Jesus reminds us to rely on and relax in the Spirit who brings the peace that passes all understanding. Kingdoms, nations, tribes, businesses, clubs and all the strivings of man fade away but the Kingdom of God in the individual heart never fades away. The Kingdom within grows and moves in the world, that part of the world in which we live, the real world. Letting that Kingdom, its King and His will be central, readies us to be eternally significant in a temporary world. Yes Lord, Thy Kingdom come on earth in our every next moment as it has been already in the eternal present of Heaven.