"ALTERED" EGOS

Talk about inflated egos! There’s an old story (probably an urban legend, but a popular speech illustration) about a Navy warship that one night detected what it thought was another ship’s lights right in its intended course through a dangerous bay entrance. The warship radioed the other ship, “Adjust your course. I am a large warship.” The other alleged ship responded, “You adjust. I’m a lighthouse.”

The point of the illustration is that an inflated sense of importance can be a dangerous thing. If we don’t change to adapt to reality, we’re apt to crash.

The problem in life is that we live among folks who think they are warships and that everything revolves around them.  They are the center of their own universe, a problem psychologists call “narcissism.” It’s seen in people who overestimate their talents or importance, feel “entitled” or “special,” and are selfish and exploitative. 

I’ve been around such people, and I can hardly wait to get out of their “boasting zone.” They remind me of myself as teenager whose self-esteem was wrapped up in playing the violin in the high school orchestra. I never had private lessons so was a mediocre player, but did I ever covet the role of “Concertmistress” (first chair), which I finally achieved as a senior. Going to college and getting “seated” back in the second violin section adjusted my ego downward! Along with that came learning that every player did his or her best for the benefit of the whole orchestra, regardless of where they were ability-positioned. 

'BIGGER THAN....'
That truth was expressed in psychological terms in Dr. Henry Cloud’s bestselling book Integrity (Harper, 2006). He wrote that emotional healthiness means changing course from self-centeredness to the quality of transcendence. A person with this attribute has gone beyond thinking that life revolves around him or her, and sees that life is about things and causes bigger than them.

“The greatest people,” he wrote, “are the ones who have not sought greatness, but served greatly the cause, values and missions that were much bigger than them. And by joining and serving those, we see greatness emerge” (p. 243).

Not surprisingly, we have that same advice in the Bible, namely Paul’s letter to Roman Christians:

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” (Romans 12:3)

He goes on to describe the various skills (or gifts) within the Christian fellowship, from preaching to showing mercy.  They all fit together like one grand puzzle, no one piece more important than the other.  When inflated egos submit to God, it’s the spiritually altered egos that best serve Him.

They’ll never mistake a lighthouse for another ship.