Fond of pressuring and seeing others bow to your point of view? Are you in the habit of dictating others on stuff they’re quite capable of doing, or giving advice even if they’re not asking for it? Do you catch yourself doing all the talking and cut others off if they dare share their own ideas?
Making others do things your way. That’s your greatest obsession.
Decidedly control freakish! Exhibit A for a “me, myself and I”—center-of-the-world—diagnosis.
Don’t look around. We’re all guilty. In varying degrees.
The need to take control and be a know-it-all is as old as the story of Adam and Eve. Remember how they caved into Satan’s honey-coated coaxing? To be the boss and be on top of every situation are guaranteed ego-boosters!
“Genesis 3: 6 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food… was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate… and also gave some to her husband…”
The need to take control and be a know-it-all is as old as the story of Adam and Eve.
I recently watched two Netflix features. One was about 60s-80s US fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick who skyrocketed to fame because Jackie Kennedy wore one of his pillbox hats at her husband’s presidential inauguration. The Halston brand then invaded other fashion lines and quickly became a household name—the envy of every aspiring designer.
John Delorean‘s was a documentary. A gifted engineer, he clawed his way to the top of General Motor’s stiff-upper-lipped management team. Almost became the number one boss. But his non-conforming and manipulative style pushed him to the resign-or-be-fired-out door. It was just the break he needed to put up his own disruptive car company. The Delorean brand soon became iconic.
Both characters found themselves crashing towards the end of their careers. You have to watch the movie and documentary for the details.
Their common denominator? Heads puffed up, Halston and Delorean felt invincible—unrestrainable—as they ascended Mount Pride—where insatiable lifestyles, rule-breaking, arrogance, and manipulation of others, were the norm.
Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
CS Lewis pointedly puts it. “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. It is the comparison that makes you proud. The pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone.”
Halston lost his name. He had no choice but to allow his investors to buy him out. He died of AIDS—after an intoxicating lifestyle of dope and sex and over-the-top sensual pleasures.
Delorean dealt with a drug-smuggling scandal to, would you believe, finance his crumbling empire. Stupid choice, for a man so brilliant. Cost him his family too.
They thought they could out-do God by lifting themselves up as gods. Adam and Eve’s story all over again. They got busted even before they could cry, “Help, I’m drowning in my vomit!”
What was all the huffing and puffing really all about? For zilch? Disgrace?
Are you a young person, gifted, at the top of your game?
Realize this—you’re not the controlling interest. God is. He’s got so much invested in you, He’d want you to succeed.
The earlier you give your heart to Him and allow Him to retool your I-me-myself-prone attitude, the happier you’ll be.
Prayer: Lord, open my eyes to see who I really am in your sight. I have been created in your image; therefore I’m capable. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Yet, let me be subject to your plan, your rules. I confess that genuine success is in you alone, not in money or possessions or temporary pleasures. Help me, Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
