Do people go to the Grand Canyon to enhance their self esteem? No, of course not. You go to take in the incredible majesty of all that is around you. Thinking of the outward glory of the Grand Canyon only as means to inward enhancement is appallingly illogical and psychopathic. In view of the Grand Canyon, you simply lose all bearings of yourself, and you forget yourself entirely because of the immense gravity of the beauty around you. And ironically, quite the reverse happens: soaking up that grand view—instead of indulging on yourself—is what makes you better all along. It’s better medicine for the soul. Indeed, forgetting about enhancing yourself in that moment is actually what enhances you.
That’s the striking paradox I want to cover in this blog: forgetting about improving yourself is what actually what improves you all along, because it’s what finally snaps your natural, compulsive, underlying tendency to make everything ultimately about you.
So then, how does one forget about himself/herself? We simply don’t have the luxury of living in view of the Grand Canyon for the rest of our lives. However, I will propose that we begin to lose a sense of ourselves when we to begin to gain a sense of God’s glory.
And so my question is this: if it’s simply illogical to view a Grand Canyon type experience as a means for self-enhancement, then why approach God on the same terms? So many people in the church approach God as a means towards their own personal enhancement. God is not seen as LORD in our life—he is so often reduced to an apprentice who mediates our own love affair with ourselves and idols. We ask him to do things for us because we want things—not him. We treat him like a vending machine or spiritual Santa, such that if we just put in the ‘coins’ or update the ‘resume’ of our good works, then he’ll ultimately enhance us by giving us what we want. We illogically substitute the Creator for the creation, the Giver for the gifts. But God is not only the ultimate Giver, but the ultimate Gift! If you have the Giver, then you have all that is his. But if you only have the gifts, then that’s it.
This issue is fundamentally about our design: if we were designed for God, then our own self-enhancement only and truly happens when God is in ultimate view—not ourselves. The thought that we can use God as a means for the end of self-enhancement is grounded on the false presupposition that we are best fulfilled when God serves our glory. But quite the opposite is true: God designed us to serve his glory. Therefore, we will only and can only find ultimate satisfaction by glorifying God.
Besides, when do you feel more alive: Soaking in the glory of the Grand Canyon, or being locked in a room of mirrors? The contrast is alarmingly stark.
As John Piper says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”. And to add to that, I’ll say, we are most enhanced when God is most glorified in us. Meaning, we become more optimally ourselves when God is most optimally glorified in us.
Indeed, when Christianity becomes only about our life transformation and enhancement, it makes us wonder who we are really worshiping after all. Christianity is not about the Christian and his improvement, but about the Christ and his glory. And ironically, it is only in view of Christ and his glory where Christians truly improve after all. Christ’s glory is what finally melts and reorients our natural, inward bent to a selfless, outward posture—and that’s when we feel most alive, burn hottest with passion, grow fastest in humility, love stronger, and persevere harder and more gladly in God. That’s what we were made for.
“Sin is man substituting himself for God. Salvation is God substituting himself for man.” -Stott
As all sin, death, bitterness, and hopelessness can ultimately be traced to an emphasis of ourselves over God, conversely, all saving, redeeming, sanctifying, and glorifying can be expressed as an emphasis of God over ourselves. Therefore, any spiritual growth methodology that takes the trajectory of ‘ourselves over God’ is essentially a seed planted on infertile soil—it’s its own coffin. However, any seed planted on the grounds of ‘God over ourselves’ is an explosion of spiritual growth because that’s what we were designed for.
