The Jack Horner Effect

“At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High… who does as he pleases” Daniel 4:34-35

You’ve got to wonder a little about what’s being taught in nursery rhymes. Take, for instance, that old rhyme, “Little Jack Horner.”

Little Jack Horner sat in the corner
Eating his Christmas pie:
He stuck in his thumb, and pulled out a plum
And said, “What a good boy am I!”

This scene bothers me a little. The kid appears to be a troublemaker, which has landed him in the corner for a time out. And then he has the audacity to stick his thumb in the dessert. When he pulls out his little thumb, instead of giving his mom the glory for putting the succulent plum in the pie, he attributes the tastiness of the plum in his pie to his own goodness! He undeservedly grabs on to glory that doesn’t belong to him. It’s what I call the “Jack Horner Effect.”

Long before little Jack and his Christmas pie, King Nebuchadnezzar went on a pride and power trip of his own. Having built up an unrivaled and unsurpassed empire, his pride and self-glory were at record highs. Daniel 4 records, in Nebuchadnezzar’s own words, the account of God warning him through a dream that his pride and arrogance were going to be broken if he did not repent. Just one year after the warning, the king is strolling on his roof, perhaps overlooking the famed hanging gardens of Babylon, when he makes this statement, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30). It’s the Jack Horner Effect. Mistakenly believing that his own abilities provided his success, King Neb loudly trumpets his own power and takes the glory that belonged to God upon himself. He would have been nothing if God hadn’t given Him all that he had.

Well, God doesn’t take stealing the glory from Him lightly.

Immediately, Nebuchadnezzar was reduced—for seven years!—to madness that left him banished from the palace, foraging for scraps, eating grass in the field like an animal. When restored, he humbly praised the power and might of the Most High God who “does what he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth” (4:35).

There’s an important lesson here. It’s possible that we may have fallen into the same pattern of thinking. Looking around at what God has given us, at the blessings that many of us experience on a day-to-day basis—a measure of success, comfortable homes, reliable cars, favor at work, loving families—we are sometimes tempted to buy the lie that somehow all of this is our own doing. Which leaves us in the corner with little Jack, thinking “what a good person am I.” Troublingly, we can smugly assume that those who are facing financial struggles or family crises are somehow a little less clever than we are. Our attitudes and our actions point to our trust in our own abilities and intelligence, rather than to the grace and generosity of our sovereign God.

Let’s learn a lesson from a grass-eating Babylonian king who was consumed with taking God’s glory to himself and a corner-bound kid with a plum on his thumb. While God wants us to enjoy all the good things He has done for us and given us, He desires that we use His goodness as an opportunity to bring glory to Him in our world. Let’s get beyond ourselves and keep in mind that we’d be nothing without the gracious and abundant provision of God.

Avoid the Jack Horner Effect!

YOUR JOURNEY…

• List some moments of success or favor in your life. How did those successes affect the way you thought about yourself? Did you bask in your own glory, or recognize that without all that God has given and provided you would have had no success at all?
• Think back to a difficult or humbling experience in your life. How did God use that moment to draw you back to reliance on Him?
• Plan some practical ways to point people to the Lord the next time you are praised or complimented for a moment of success. Pray for opportunities to focus the attention of your family, friends, or co-workers to the worthy glory and honor of God!

Check out this week's Strength for the Journey  message