Bragging Rights

2 Corinthians 10:17 - Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

2 Corinthians 12:9 - But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.

Bragging - it gets a negative spin, but it's fun! It brings attention and affirmation to ourselves. You just ran your fastest 5k (or your first 5k!), you got a promotion, you're in a relationship with someone you're crazy about, you're part of a new church plant, you're.... you get the idea. We like the boost to our egos when we are affirmed and people "like" our bragging in the form of a status update on Facebook.

Why is boasting so wrong? For starters, it brings attention to us, but if we look at ourselves objectively, there's a much different picture than what we're painting. God gave you the strength and endurance for that personal best, He put the pieces in place for your promotion, He orchestrated the meeting between you and her, it's His church and not yours. Got it? Every good thing comes from God in His grace and mercy. On our own, we're nothing. We're just sinners floundering in a sea of consequences directly tied to our actions. Secondly, your boasting is cause for someone else to become jealous of what you have. Why cause your brother to stumble?

What Paul is trying to get us to see is that the good stuff isn't because of something we did, it's because of what God did. If you're going to brag about it, boast about the way that God's hand was in every part of the process and tell people you had nothing to do with it - because you really didn't! When you boast in Christ and your brother wants what you have, he can have it! As a bonus, you can help him get it. Paul actually tells us to boast in our weakness and I would add failure to that as well. When we talk about ourselves humbly in the reality of our situation, we act as trophies and testimonies to the goodness of our God since we show off that all good things we have are by His hand.

See, like just now, I took a sip of my smoothie and dripped it right down my shirt. Awesome. But that's what I'm good at; making messes. God cleans us up through the redeeming work of Christ. Notice there's no mention of anything I did to earn that. Christ did not say "No one comes to the Father except through me, but I made a couple of exceptions for a few people because they work hard."

Try this for a week - when you're on Facebook and you really want to post something about you, write it in a way that shows off God's goodness. If you can't figure out how to write it, then brag about someone else and boost their ego instead of yours. When you make your life the "Look What Jesus is Doing" show, people will want what you have, and that is worth boasting about!