Monuments to Self

In the mid-90's I had the opportunity to live in Argentina for three months while completing an internship. It was an incredible experience of living in a different culture, trying to learn a new language, and it was the first time I had ever been that far away for that long from those I loved dearly, namely my financé at the time, who is now my wife.

One of the many experiences I had while there was going to a soccer match (yes, I know they call it fútbol) between Boca Juniors and River Plate. At the time, these two clubs were fierce rivals, and the atmosphere was intense! The fans were continuously chanting, police and their canines were everywhere, and fences had been erected to ensure the fan bases stayed apart.

Not long into the match, a section of Boca fans began to unfurl a giant flag that covered multiple rows across and down. The flag had the name Maradonna (one of the all-time Argentine soccer greats) with words of affection and a heart for Maradonna on the flag.

As the flag covered row after row, you could hear the fans cheering growing louders and them beginning to chant "Maradonna, Maradonna, Maradonna - even tho he did not play for them that year. As I watched, my friend who brought me to the game leaned over and said, "Maradonna had that made for the fans. Some ego, huh?"

Just Like Saul

It has been years since I thought of that match, but recently it came back into my mind as I was reading the story of King Saul in I Samuel.

We know from the book of I Samuel that Israel no longer wanted God as their king; they wanted a king like all of the other nations. God relented and gave the people what they wanted, and their first king was King Saul.

It does not take long for us to see Saul falter in his role, as time and time again he spurns the words of the Lord delivered by the prophet Samuel. The most infamous of all of Saul's disobediences is laid out for us in chapter 15. This is when God commanded Saul to completely destroy Amalek and all that is in it.

For those who know the story, we know that Saul did not follow these commands, and as a result, God rejected the line of Saul. While there are several verses that stand out in that chapter, there was one line that I had not noticed before, but clearly stood out to me. We see in the early parts of the passage that as Samuel is looking for Saul to confront his disobedience, that Saul "had set up a monument to himself".

To quote my friend, "Some ego, huh?"

I Am Saul

I'll admit, when I first read the words "set up a monument to himself", I thought of Saul's pride, hubris, and ego. But then, I realized that I am just like Saul.

I may not go out and build a monument to myself for everyone to see, but there are certainly monuments in my life that I establish, if even just mentally, to show how important I am, how successful I am, and just what an all-around good person I am.

I can look at job title, my bank account, my material possessions, my social media posts likes, impressions, and comments, my. . . and all of it serves as a monument to self, and just like Saul, all of it is driven by pride.

No Gray Areas

When it comes to pride, there are two choices: we can be prideful monument builders or we can be humble and allow the Lord to lift us up as he says He will in Psalm 147; there is no in between.

As we head into the weekend, may we tear down whatever monuments we have built to ourselves and humbly seek the One who is the only One who is worthy of all of our praise. It is when we do that we can be assured that He will supply us with His grace, while He opposes those who build monuments to self.

On the Journey With You,

Carlos

This edition was first published in The Life Design Newsletter on LinkedIn.