Am I a bold, self-assured man, confident in the gifts and talents God has given me?

Or am I an arrogant jerk?

That was rhetorical—you don’t need to answer.

Please. 

One of the nerve-wracking aspects of parenting is that I am often trying to teach my children lessons that I am still learning for myself.  An example of this came up recently, as my son and I discussed the idea of confidence.  We were on a morning hike, and trying to digest Psalm 1.  We started chewing on the line about sitting, “in the seat of mockers.”  What does it mean to mock?  Why does a man mock others?  This led me to share some pearls of fatherly wisdom that I made up as I went along.

At this stage in our relationship, I think that there is something you should know about me.  I often come up with ideas “on the spot,” so to speak.  These ideas can be quite profound, but do not always benefit from having been fully explored in my mind before I share them.  Thus, I sometimes speak with, let us say, more confidence than is warranted by my knowledge or experience.  This trait often prompts my bride to ask, “Do you know that for sure, or does it just sound good to you?” Some might call it the spiritual gift of wisdom—others have less flattering terms.  But it is what it is, and as Popeye, sage and sailor, said, “I yam what I yam, and that’s all what I yam.”

Feel free to contradict me, but here’s what I’m thinking…

There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Confidence is born of security.  A confident man knows who he is and what he is capable of.  He knows his strengths, and knows that they are gifts from God.  He knows his faults, and that any one of them is enough to disqualify him from the prize of Heaven.  His identity is firmly established in Christ.  He has nothing to prove.  This knowledge allows him to serve.  The confident man is on the lookout for ways to help others, knowing that he is in competition with no man.

The confident man is looking to glorify God and bless people.

Consider Jesus—always a good move when you’re looking for an example to follow.  Pretty confident fellow, wouldn’t you say?  He certainly had reason, being Lord of the universe and all.  His deep knowledge of who he was meant that he had nothing to prove.  He was able to focus his energy on two things—glorifying the Father and blessing others.  Of course, blessing people is another way of glorifying God, so I guess you could say that he was focused on just the one thing.

Arrogance is born of insecurity.  The arrogant man doesn’t know who he is in Christ; he only has the deep down realization that he is not…enough.  As a result he has a fierce need to prove his worth to himself and the world.  He mocks as a way of showing that he is superior, not caring that his rise comes at another’s expense.  Life for the arrogant man is a zero sum game.  He can only climb on the backs of others, because he doesn’t know the God who can lift him up.

The arrogant man is looking to glorify himself and impress others.

The arrogant man has trouble submitting to authority, because he doesn’t like to admit that he is under authority.  It reminds him of all that he is not.  He rebels, testing his strength against his boss, his teacher, his dad.  If he disagrees with those over him, he will fight as a way to prove his worth.

The confident man submits to authority with grace, knowing that submitting to the authority that God has established is, in fact, submitting to God.  Such submission does nothing to lessen him; in truth, it builds him up.

So, to “Sit in the seat of mockers,” is to act like one who does not know Christ and the power of his sacrifice in my life.  It is to pull others down, so that I can stand on them to feel taller.  It is to rebel against authority, rather than submitting with grace and confidence in God’s sovereignty.

It’s stupid.

Lesson for my kids.

Lesson for their dad.

Just a thought.