Monday, July 17, 2006
"Love does not parade itself" (1 Corinthians 13:4).
IDEA: Love does not boast.
PURPOSE: To demonstrate how boasting shows a wrong perspective about life.
Do you like Texas jokes?
What makes Texas jokes “Texas jokes”?
A Texas rancher visited some friends in Chicago. They decided to show the Texan the big city.
They showed him the skyscrapers, and he said, “We’ve got tombstones at home taller than those.”
They showed him Lake Michigan, and he said, “I have a pond on my ranch bigger than that.”
That night the Chicagoans wanted to put him in his place, so they go two snapping turtles and put them under the sheets on his bed. He crawled into bed and had an unpleasant surprise. He jumped out of bed, yelling. When the hosts came rushing in, the Texan demanded, “What are those things in my bed?”
“Those are Chicago bedbugs,” they said. Taking a closer look, the rancher replied, “Sure enough, they are. Small ones, aren’t they?”
Most people who are good at boasting turn it into a fine art.
I. Why do people parade themselves?
Sometimes it comes out of insecurity. People talk big because they feel small.
Sometimes it’s a legitimate desire turned sour. Do you think it’s normal to want to be liked and have others appreciate what we’ve done?
Lord Byron said, “Bragging may not bring happiness, but no man who has caught a big fish goes home through the alley.”
Boasting means that we’ve allowed that legitimate desire to dominate us.
“What will they think of me” becomes life’s ultimate question.
We care so much about the applause of others that we work feverishly to get it.
Boasting puts us into competition with one another rather than in communion.
Basketball players, for example, are concerned about their statistics. They’re not only in competition against the other team, but they compete with other players on their own team.
Other vices can bring people together, but envy and boasting drive people apart. You can have “drinking buddies” or you can speak of people as “thick as thieves.”