Fools Rush In Where Monkeys Fear To Tread - Reformation21
I was directed by another friend to a website where an individual had put up on their social network page a public announcement that that they were 'humbled' by a reference to themselves on a well-known theologian's blog. Curiouser and curiouser, I thought: being humbled usually involves becoming more self-effacing, making oneself more invisible, bringing less attention to oneself. At least, that's what the Oxford Dictionary implies; but, hey-ho, maybe Webster's is different?
This person had no doubt asked himself how he might best demonstrate this self-effacement. "Perhaps I should send a private note of thanks to the person concerned, expressing quiet appreciation for his kind reference to me,' he no doubt reflected; but then, suddenly, a light bulb must have clicked on in his head -- `No. I know what I'll do. I'll announce my humility on my Facebook page! Surely it is hard to imagine a more humble and less attention seeking move? And, yes, while I'm logged on, I'll also mention it on the very webpage where said well-known theologian originally puffed me, just to make sure that everybody knows how humbled I truly am.'
Let's stop there a minute. This is madness. Is this where we have come to, with our Christian use of the web?
I knew [an agnostic lady] in the nineteen-eighties who, when asked where her son went to university would always reply, `Oh, to a small college in East Anglia' because she feared that the more precise explanation - the University of Cambridge - would bring too much attention to her family and be seen as a way of puffing herself and belittling others. She was truly modest and fiercely private. Such a different attitude to the `me first and only' exhibitionism found on the web - the Christian web! -- today.
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