Ecclesiastes 1:2 says ‘Vanity, vanity – all is vanity!’.
The closest I’ve come to ever using the word ‘vanity’ is in attempting to sing ‘You’re so vain’ by Carly Simon! Now I’m really showing my age. That’s all until just the last week. I’ve had a hunch but now have faith that if I attempted to do all of the stuff I see other people doing it would all be … you guess it – vanity. And that’s my problem … I’m often lured into over admiring the great stuff other people are doing that I get distracted from all the stuff I’m doing.
If I fell for the traps of imitating someone else’s call, even for a second, it would be one second of vanity. If I moved church, house, city or plans to be where it’s at, it would a move of pure vanity or as the NIV translation puts it – meaningless.
Significance and meaning is only entered into through being faithful to your call, your frontier, your mandate and your piece in the puzzle.
All the rest is … vanity. I don’t want God singing any Carly Simon to me from now on.
Lot of weight in that little blog, Dave!
It’s certainly tempting when you’re just getting going with church, like we are, to be swayed in your plans when you see the next ‘great thing’ that church x is doing. To be inspired is great, but I guess there can be an insecurity-driven movement towards copy-cat ministry that isn’t rooted in faith or calling.
Thanks for your honesty, Dave.
(Had a great time a couple weeks back with Chris D. Showed me around Leeds Megacentre! Now that was inspiring!)
Hi David, glad to hear the site is helping. Great comments again! You’ve got to run in your own lane. If you don’t – who will.
We love you and Lisa! We started on the Leeds building this week! Exciting times!
Look forward to seeing you at BLink.
DAVE