The Dangers of Getting Ahead
This article first appeared on Theopolis. Read it there HERE.
The Tortoise and the Hare is perhaps the most well-known of the Greek fables. Its story has been present in every era of human history. From the Indigenous retellings with hummingbirds and cranes to the Biblical account of David and Goliath, the basic furniture of an unlikely hero tale is well-ingrained. The focal point of interpretation is perhaps just as manifold. Many American cartoons have republished the fable in order to inspire children with the moral that hard work can produce astounding results. Some focus on the optimistic trope of the little guy having strengths the big guy lacks. But the Greeks knew that overconfidence is a death sentence and it was there that they trained their sights. For the Christian, the warning should center upon the reality that things going well is a reminder to raise your defenses, not lower them.
How many men have received their 10 year sobriety coin only to go out and celebrate at the bar? Another man is told by his wife that she will give him one more chance to prove his faithfulness, only to have his gratitude drop all his defenses and have him plummet headlong into moral failure.
The flesh looks for any chance to reward itself. It is works-based and so it runs on perceived merit. The works of the flesh dole out rewards of the flesh. Its wages are death. Be careful when everything is going well. Even spiritual victories can be co-opted by the flesh, which is all too eager to take the credit. Overconfidence and lack of preparation for chance encounters are the two main ingredients of disaster.
And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtle of heart. (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows. Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. – Proverbs 7:10-15
Lady Folly is not a woman operating by faith and so her actions show us a design feature of sin. Whenever a person gets ahead in some way, there is an accompanying assumption that one has the wiggle room to splurge.
Marshall McLuhan once said that every extension is accompanied by an amputation. The extension, in the case of Lady Folly, is her bills being paid. The amputation is her false assumption that, since her bills are paid, she can afford to rack up a little debt. Sin, to the unassuming mind, is a small debt, rather than slavery. Thus, the wise man is taught to guard his heart in the event that one is able to get ahead.
Similarly, the wise man should be on guard against praise. This is part of the tactic of entrapment that Lady Folly employs. She came out, she tells the man with his guard down, to meet him specifically. And if he lacks wisdom, he will be flattered; and his susceptibility to flattery will ensnare him. Overconfidence and lack of preparation for apparently chance encounters are the two main ingredients of disaster.
Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. – Luke 6:26
Be careful when everything is going well. Be careful with praise and with compliments. The righteous man should not be taken off-guard when he encounters them. The Bible says that a man skilled in his work will establish quite a reputation for himself (Proverbs 22:29). It’s not a sin to receive attention and accolades; but the flesh is tempted to survive on them. Mark Twain is attributed with having said, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” When the flesh is not prepared for chance encounters with praise, the result will often be that one’s defenses are down and confidence is boosted on the fickle waves of the pleasure of other people. But people pleasers usually have one audience member in mind more than all the others . . . that is the self. The righteous man should know that he is a potential candidate for chance encounters creating an effect of overconfidence and which only accomplish his downfall. The righteous man should be wise about this and guard against it.
I heard a preacher say, once, that flattery is the other side of the coin on which gossip is minted. In gossip, a person says behind another’s back what they would not say to their face. In flattery, a person says to one’s face what they would not say behind their back. Often, flattery comes in chance encounters. When the Scriptures say that we should let another praise us and not our own lips, this is most often praise to others, not to ourselves (Proverbs 27:2). Praise about us that is directed to us should be received through a much more elaborate filtration system than praise about us that has been given to other people. Overconfidence and lack of preparation for chance encounters are the two main ingredients of disaster.
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.- Ecclesiastes 9:11
In this passage we see something of the Aesopian warning about overconfidence. The race not being given to the swift is, perhaps, the very message from the Creator that has been the inspiration of the tortoise and the hare fable in every iteration. But it is not overconfidence alone that is being warned of here. The chance encounter bookends the end of the verse.
Chance here should not be thought of as a thing that exists outside the jurisdiction of God’s sovereignty; rather, it should be thought of as a kind of unexpected meeting. Coupled with time, chance encounters ultimately change the course of events in ways that were previously unseen. For the faithful, interruptions like these need not throw us off course.
I once heard a pastor challenge his congregation to consider how many major movements in the Gospels are, themselves, interruptions that the Lord Jesus chanced upon while already enmeshed in some other task. Think of Him being engaged to go to the house of Jairus to heal his dying daughter only to stop and begin inquiring of the crowd who had touched Him. The righteous man is not thrown off track by the chance encounter because the chance encounter is still framed by the sovereignty of God over time and space. The righteous man trusts God with what appears to be a chance encounter. And the righteous man’s confidence is in God’s ability to persevere him, not his own ability to navigate encounters in his own strength.
Overconfidence and lack of preparation for chance encounters are the two main ingredients of disaster. Do well. Make progress. Get ahead; but do not drop your guard as to what that means for the wise man. The Spirit does not wink at sin, even if it’s been a while.
