Have you ever known someone so self-involved they were exhausting to be around? I have. Don’t get me wrong, this person was amicable enough. They were warm and outwardly friendly. But they couldn’t see past their own perspective. Every conversation was inevitably directed into a story in which they were the center.  Every topic, a mere launch-pad to a tale about their experiences. I once saw them dominate a friend’s birthday celebration with stories of their own birthday. I got so tired of such self-focused boasting that, eventually, I began to limit my interactions.

Boasting does this, doesn’t it? Instead of drawing people in, it pushes people away. Instead of creating a space for communion and community, boasting establishes walls around us that few ever move past.  Boasting leads us to isolation rather than intimacy, we feel lonely rather than loved. What is more, when we adopt such boasting in our Christian lives, it leads us away from Christ-focused ministry and into self-focused manipulations. Personally, I’ve listened to far too many sermons where the preacher, rather than Jesus, is the main character.

Biblically speaking, boasting refers to any act of glorification. To boast is to lift one’s head in rejoicing. It is an act of exultation and praise. Boasting is intimately connected to worship. For my friend above, the need to be the focus of attention, acclaimed as the life of the party, was ultimately an act of self-exultation and praise. Their worship was pointed inward. They glorified themselves and hoped that others would glorify them as well.  When seen in this light, we quickly realize that boasting is akin to idolatry, the worship of someone or something besides the one who made us and redeemed us.

The bible never actually calls us to refrain from boasting, but to boast rightly. We direct our worship and praise to the one who is its true recipient. it. Rather than exulting on our own self, or our own story, we boast in the Lord. We lift our heads to the wonders of God’s presence and activity.  We keep our attention on Jesus, and we draw our eyes toward his presence.

Does this mean we are called to a more sanctified version of story-twisting? Like my friend above, who co-opted every topic into a story of their own exploits, do we twist every conversation into a one about Jesus?  Do we turn every interaction into an opportunity for evangelism?  Do we name-drop Jesus whenever we can? Sadly, I’ve known people like this. Their behavior is manipulative and off-putting.

We can never place Jesus in the center of our lives if we choose to occupy that space ourselves. Nor can we respond to the movement of God if we are too busy trying to bring about our own plans. As long as we are more concerned with our recognition than God’s glory, we live with misdirected boasting. Boasting in the Lord demands that we keep our eyes on Jesus. We loosen our grasp over the moment, yielding into to the movement of the Spirit and the will of God. After all, this is exactly what we open ourselves to whenever we pray “thy will be done.”  Instead of controlling the day, managing the scene, or directing a conversation, we adopt a position of daring humility. We risk being overlooked, ignored, and forgotten, all for the sake of Christ.

But does this mean that we have no role to play in evangelism, no call to witness, no spiritual promptings to tell the story of Jesus in our lives? Harldy! Boasting in the Lord necessitates declaring the greatness of God in our lives. Our fervor for the Lord, rooted in humble acceptance of His will, will inevitably lead us to tell our story of faith. But such telling is never done with an air of self-congratulation.

See, our faith is not a tool we wield for our own accolades. In fact, Paul is adamant that boasting in the Lord involves boasting about our weaknesses. Our weakness becomes the place where Christ’s power is most fully revealed. After all, our faith is never perfect. It involves stumbles and falls, sins and mistakes. Boasting in the Lord, therefore, involves being open and honest about the difference that Jesus makes in our life, and about how his grace sustains us.  

This is the boasting we engage in, for it is boasting about redemption, forgiveness and new life. It is a boasting about mercy instead of earning, grace instead of perfection; it is a boasting about Jesus rather than our selves.