While reading Proverbs this morning I stumbled across an idea I can’t shake. “Better to be a nobody . . . than to pretend to be somebody. . .” (Proverbs 12:9)
Why do we pretend to be what we are not? Why not just be who we are? Pretense is everywhere. That’s why you can buy a fake Rolex in any large city in the world. Why not just wear a Timex? Because for some reason we like to pretend we spent more than we did. And that makes us feel valuable.
I think that if we, as believers, actually figure out who we are, then there would be no reason to pretend to be something else. We would not need a logo on a shirt to make us feel good about our existence. When we realize that we are created in God’s image, that we are adopted into His family and that we are His heirs, then anything we pretend to be is so much less than reality, that there is no longer any thrill in the pretense.
Maybe pretense prompted Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians. “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints.” (Ephesians 1:17,18)
