“The Myth of the Self-Made Man”
1 Tim. 6:3-4a,5b-10.17-19 and Deut. 8:7-18 (GNT)
By John Gill ~ November 17, 2024
One of my favorite television shows is “Shark Tank.” As you may know, it features five millionaires and billionaires who all became rich because of their own hard work and ingenuity – and no small measure of luck. Budding entrepreneurs bring their bright ideas for business ventures to the panel, and try to strike a deal with one of the millionaires to back their company. It’s entertaining to watch the wheeling and dealing, and to realize that if a deal can be struck, the lives of those who make their pitch can be transformed. They may even strike it rich themselves.
Those millionaires, like many of America’s billionaires in the “Upper 1%” are proud the say they are “self-made” men and women. They believe that they are solely responsible for their wealth and success. And their pride often borders on arrogance. As Bryant McGill observed, “Self-made men often worship their creator!”
Now, I’m sure that it did take a lot of hard work and business savvy for those “Sharks” to build their business empire – but I suspect that somewhere along the line, they owe part of the credit to others who made it possible for them to succeed. As George Matthews Adams put it: “There is no such thing as a self-made man. We are made up of thousands of others.” I think that was what Oliver Wendell Holmes was trying to get across when he wrote that, “Everybody likes and respects self-made men. It’s a great deal better to be made that way, than not to be made at all.” Yes, self-made men and women often got to be “self-made” – with lots of help.
It is very true to say that, in our American culture, it is considered a high complement to be described as “self-made.” We have special admiration for people who are able to “pull themselves up by their own boot-straps” - as impossible as that would be to literally do.
And, yes, it is an especially notable achievement for a person starting out at a disadvantage in life to make him or herself a “success” by their sheer grit and self-determination. People like that DO deserve our admiration and respect, and I suppose, one COULD actually describe them as “self-made.”
But there is also a danger in thinking that you and I, who are not super-rich, are “self-made.” The danger comes NOT from the success we might achieve in life (there is nothing wrong with being successful). But, along with success in life, comes the temptation to succumb to sin – to fall into the sins of “pride” and “arrogance.” We see plenty evidence of those sins all the time in our American society, especially these days.
When we are successful, it is easy for us to forget the true source of our successes, and delude ourselves into thinking that we have done it all on our own.
Our scripture texts on this Sunday remind us, in no uncertain terms, that to say someone is “self-made” is, at best a myth, and at worse heresy!
As we heard a moment ago from the Book of Deuteronomy, “So then, you must never think that you have made yourselves wealthy by your own power and strength. Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to become rich. He does this because he is still faithful today to the covenant that he made with your ancestors.” (Deut. 8:17-18 GNT).
No one is successful in life on his or her own, no matter WHAT we might like to think! To suggest that we have only OURSELVES to thank is to show a shocking disregard for the God, “from whom all blessings flow!”
In this Thanksgiving season, we would do well to heed Paul’s warning to the Romans, “Do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think,” Paul wrote, “instead, be modest in your thinking.” (Rom. 12:3) We must not become puffed-up with pride.
William Beebe, a famous naturalist, used to tell this story about Teddy Roosevelt: Whenever Beebe would visit Roosevelt at his home at Sagamore Hill, the two would go out on the lawn and search the skies for a certain spot in the night sky, just left of the constellation, “Pegasus.” Then Roosevelt would say, “That is the spiral galaxy of Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It consists of a hundred-billion stars, and is one of a hundred-billion galaxies.” Then, he would grin and say, “Now I think we are small enough. Let’s go to bed.”
Yes, the danger of assuming we are self-made people is that we tend to think of ourselves “more highly than we ought to think.” And in doing so, we forget God.
Moses knew the dangers of success. Our text this morning is a warning to the Hebrew people as they prepared to finally enter the Promised Land – that land “flowing with milk and honey” that God had promised to Abraham many generations before. Moses knew that, once settled in the lush and fertile Promised Land, the people would get too comfortable – enjoying the produce of the land, mining precious minerals from the ground, and building fine homes in which to live. He knew that, when the people became “successful,” they would quickly forget who they were as God’s people – they would forget how they themselves had been refugees in a foreign land. They would forget how God had led them out of slavery in Egypt, and provided for them in miraculous ways throughout their years of wandering in the wilderness. And they would overlook the truth that the land they were enjoying was, in fact, a gift from God. They would fall into that inevitable “trap of success,” thinking that they had brought about their prosperity on their own.
As Moses told the people, “You will have all you want to eat, and you will give thanks to the Lord your God for the fertile land that he has given you. Make certain that you do not forget the Lord your God; do not fail to obey any of his laws that I am giving you today. When you have all you want to eat and have built good houses to live in and when your cattle and sheep, your silver and gold, and all your other possessions have increased, be sure that you do not become proud and forget the Lord your God...”
In this Thanksgiving season, I believe this text is especially appropriate for us. You and I are, by nearly every standard of measure, “successful. It is true that few of us think of ourselves as wealthy – but we are. As citizens of the United States, we make up only about 4 ½ % of the world’s population, but we hold around 25% of the world’s wealth. Compared to the majority of people in the world, you and I live in a “promised land” of our own – a “land flowing with milk and honey.” Most Americans have enough to eat, and more. We have adequate clothing and the necessities of life. We have families and friends who care for us, and a nation that, despite its many faults, provides a level of security and opportunity that is the envy of the world.
Truly, America is “our Promised Land.” And it’s awfully easy for us to get comfortable with our successes. We’ve worked hard, and have “earned” our blessings – haven’t we???? We like to think of ourselves as being a nation of “self-made” men and women. But, like our ancient Hebrew brothers and sisters, we can easily fall into the “traps” of success – to arrogantly point with pride to our own accomplishments, and fail to show proper gratitude to God.
In one of his Thanksgiving messages to the nation, Abraham Lincoln expressed this danger eloquently: “We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserves us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these things were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us.”
Boy, we could sure us a Lincoln today – someone who could speak the truth so eloquently to us. I’m afraid that Lincoln’s prophetic words are even MORE true today than they were in his day! My friends, America had better take heed! A nation that fails to acknowledge that God is the source of its blessings and successes – does so at its own peril! God has richly blessed America – and it’s time America said, “Thank you!”
Further on in our text, Moses issues this prophetic warning (see if this doesn’t sound like a word for America today): “Make certain that you do not forget the Lord your God; do not fail to obey any of his laws that I am giving you today. … Never forget the Lord your God or turn to other gods to worship and serve them. If you do, then I warn you today that you will certainly be destroyed. If you do not obey the Lord, then you will be destroyed just like those nations that he is going to destroy as you advance.” (Deut. 8:11,19-20 GNT)
The message is clear: Never forget that you are God’s people – that you are called to follow His commands and live with justice and integrity – and never fail to worship and obey Him. The Hebrews fell into the trap of success, oppressed the poor and vulnerable, and eventually paid a high price for having forgotten God by being dragged-off into exile in Babylon.
If America is to survive, we had better begin to show proper gratitude to God for his blessings once again; and live according to the highest standards of ethics, virtue, and honor, that He has commanded us to observe. We had better use our wealth wisely! We had better extend mercy and compassion to the poor and vulnerable! Israel was blessed by God to be a blessing to the world. America has been blessed by God to be a blessing, as well. And you and I have been richly blessed by God to share those blessings with others.
On this Commitment Sunday, as we present our “Estimate of Giving” cards and lay them on the altar, may we remind ourselves that there is no such thing as a “self-made man or woman,” OR a “self-made nation.” God is the source of all our blessings and all our successes. All God asks of us is that we never forget where our blessing come from! Amen.
© 2024 by John B. Gill, III