Broken Buddhas

C.S. Lewis wrote an essay called “The Inner Ring.” Listen to how he exposes our heart:

Men tell not only their wives but themselves that it is a hardship to stay late at the office or the school on some bit of important extra work which they have been let in for because they and So-and-so and the two others are the only people left in the place who really know how things are run. But it is not quite true. It is a terrible bore, of course, when old Fatty Smithson draws you aside and whispers, “Look here, we’ve got to get you in on this examination somehow” or “Charles and I saw at once that you’ve got to be on this committee.” A terrible bore…ah, but how much more terrible if you were left out! It is tiring and unhealthy to lose your Saturday afternoons, but to have them free because you don’t matter, that is much worse.

We all want to matter…from the moment we step on the playground with other kids until the day we step into eternity, we fear being picked last because we’re not popular or because we’re not athletic enough. We want/long for the approval of our peers. Peer pressure…the need to be popular…the need for those around and for our kids to be popular, that’s not a teenager problem. It’s a human problem…a sin problem.

Again, we ache to hear “very good” spoken over us, and too often we’ll take it wherever we can get it because we were initially designed to hear it.

Our pursuit of significance is at its deepest level a longing to recapture what was lost in the fall.

This struggle isn’t new. There were popular religious leaders of Jesus’ day who “believed” in Him. Notice what it says in John 12:42-43 “Nevertheless, many did believe in him even among the rulers, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, so that they would not be banned from the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than praise from God.”

Being removed from the synagogue meant loss of social status. It meant losing face. It meant being stripped of social capital, designated as an outsider. If you were put outside of the synagogue, it would’ve been nearly impossible to regain your reputation.

How different are we…really…from the men of Jn.12?

How does a desire for “human praise” show itself in our culture?

“We often do whatever it takes to maintain our place in the cultural synagogue.”

Loving the glory that comes from man often chains us to the approving or disapproving gaze of others.

Ed Welch points out in his (amazing) book When People are big and God is Small that a love for man’s glory often comes from “needing something from other people.” This could range from affirmation and approval to love and service. Ultimately, we look to other humans to determine our significance and worth.

“The idol oof the glory that comes from man can own us like no other idol. It can tell us how to think, what to feel, hot to act, what to wear, and when to laugh.”

The idol described in John 12 is an extension of the fear of man — “an excessive concern about People’s opinions of us and a desire for their acceptance.”

When Caleb was young, I’m thinking two or three, Shanna had taken him to the park to play and he met a man of oriental descent talking to a child around his age.

I wasn’t even there and I was horrified by what this man thought of Caleb and Shanna and me as the father!

We NEED to be well thought of!

The danger runs even in our service to God. Too often we can serve with double vision — one eye on God and the other eye on people, hoping “they see that one eye on God and admire us for it!

Hey, by the way, this temptation runs deep in ministerial circles. Don’t think for one moment pastors, Sunday school teachers, little ol’ WMU ladies…don’t think any of us are immune. We preach, sing, and teach our hearts out, to the best of our ability, for the glory of the Lord, and then the new “flashy ministry thing” comes along and people flock this way or that; no one comes to the altar; no one gives to Lottie and Annie; our class size dwindles. You think that doesn’t take a toll on those who minister? Even when we do our best to fight it, even when we are well aware of the danger and temptation present, it doesn’t mean we always guard against it.

Here’s the insanity of seeking glory from others: the folks we long to hear affirmation from are just as glory-starved as we are.

Vassar closes with the following anecdotal notes:

Some of the most famous people of our day are courageous enough to admit (that those we look to for affirmation are just as glory starved as we are). In October of 2013, a CNN Entertainment article cited the fear and insecurity of several celebrities, many who are cultural icons. Meryl Streep was quoted as once telling Oprah magazine, “I say to myself, ‘I don’t know how to act — and why does anybody want to look at me on-screen anymore?’…Lots of actors feel that way. What gives you strength is also your weakness — your raging insecurity.” The stunningly beautiful Megan Fox was quoted in an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine: “I’m very confident in how I project my personality. But in terms of how I look, I’m completely, hysterically insecure. I’m self-loathing, introverted, and neurotic.” Even the ever-confident and sensual Beyonce’ confessed in her HBO documentary, “People see celebrities, and they have money and fame, but I’m a human being. I cry, and I get scared, and I get nervous, just like everyone else.” Just like everyone else. Just like your friends, your boss, your relatives, your next-door neighbor, that stranger on the street, or anyone else whose approval you crave. We are all glory deficient.

He then recalls a 2001 mission trip to Myanmar training indigenous pastors. They prayer walked a large Buddhist temple when he was captivated by the scene.

A large number of people, very poor and desperate, were bowing down too a large golden Buddha. They were stuffing what seemed to be the last of their money into the treasury box and kneeling in prayer, hoping to secure a blessing from the Buddha. On the other side of the large golden idol, scaffolding had been built. The Buddha had begun to deteriorate, and a group of workers was diligently repairing the broken Buddha. I took in the scene. Broken people were bowing down to a broken Buddha asking the broken Buddha to fix their broken lives while someone else fixed the broken Buddha. …We are no different from them. We are broken people looking to other broken people to fix our broken lives. We are glory-deficient people looking to other glory-deficient people to supply us with glory. Look to other people to provide for us what they lack themselves is a fool’s errand.

There is a sufficient and superior glory that can be conferred on us — a glory for God — a glory for which we were made.

Don’t seek and settle for a cheap and substitute glory. Who cares about the approval of old Fatty Smithson?!

The glory available to us is given by God and comes only from the gospel of His only unique Son.