Let's Boast
What Are You Boasting About?
There is a question worth sitting with today, one that cuts through the noise of achievement, accumulation, and appearance: What are you boasting about?
It sounds like an uncomfortable question. Most of us were raised to believe that boasting is something to avoid altogether. But there is a kind of boasting, a kind of glorying, that is not only permitted but commanded. And understanding the difference between the two might be one of the most important spiritual reckonings any of us can undertake.
The Warning From an Ancient Prophet
The prophet Jeremiah wrote during one of the most turbulent seasons in the history of Judah. The nation was surrounded by shifting political alliances, rising empires, and the very real threat of collapse. And yet, on the surface, things looked fine. The temple was still open. The sacrifices were still being offered. The outward appearance of worship continued without interruption.
But Jeremiah saw beneath the surface. In Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23 and 24, he delivered a word from God warning the people not to boast in their wisdom, their military strength, or their accumulated wealth. These were the three pillars the nation leaned on. Their scholars were brilliant. Their army was formidable. Their economy had flourished during years of relative peace. And none of it would save them.
Why? Because beneath the religious ritual and national pride, the heart of the nation had drifted. The outward show continued, but the true relationship with God had eroded. Jeremiah's message was stark: all of those advantages, apart from moral and spiritual worth, amounted to nothing.
The parallel to our own moment is not difficult to see. We live in a nation that still carries the language of faith in its public life. Churches fill city blocks. Religious programming fills airwaves. And yet, by almost any honest measure, the culture around us is saturated with the very things Jeremiah warned about. The wisdom of the world is celebrated. Strength is worshiped. Wealth is the quiet ambition behind much of what drives daily life.
What Is Actually Worth Boasting About
So what does God say is worth boasting about? Jeremiah 9:24 answers directly: understanding and knowing God. Not knowing about Him. Knowing Him.
That distinction matters more than it might first appear. Knowledge about God is available to almost anyone willing to open a book. Understanding the historical narrative of Scripture, being able to recite doctrine, knowing the right theological vocabulary, none of that is the same as a living, relational knowledge of God. The kind of knowing Jeremiah describes is intimate. It is the knowledge that comes from time spent, from trust extended, from prayers offered in desperation and in gratitude alike.
The apostle Paul echoes this in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 30 and 31, where he points to Christ as the source of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, and then quotes the same principle Jeremiah established: if you are going to boast, boast in the Lord.
This is not a passive statement. It is a reorientation of the entire self. It asks us to examine what we are actually trusting. Are we trusting in the size of our platform, the strength of our programs, the impressiveness of our resources? Or are we trusting in the God who works through weakness, who chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, who delights not in the appearance of religion but in the reality of relationship?
The Stories That Tell the Real Story
Abstract theology becomes concrete in the lives of real people. And it is in those stories where the truth of this message becomes undeniable.
Consider a man who spent forty years running from God. Decades of distance. A life lived largely outside of faith, despite having once studied for ministry. Then, almost accidentally, he walks through the doors of a church because a woman he wants to date gives him no other option. He sits in a pew. Something stirs. On his way out the door, he asks to talk.
That evening, sitting in his living room, he confesses that he has run from God for forty years and is not sure God can still forgive him. The answer, of course, is that God can and does. They pray together. His life is transformed. He eventually finds a small rural church that no one else will pastor because the congregation cannot afford to pay a salary. He spends the rest of his life shepherding those people. One man. One conversation. One act of faithfulness that created a ripple no one could have predicted.
Or consider a youth group that, on the surface, might have seemed unremarkable. Teenagers playing games, learning to worship, being poured into by faithful adults who simply showed up. Years later, those teenagers are missionaries, worship leaders, and youth pastors in other states. The fruit of faithful, unglamorous investment.
Proverbs 14:34 reminds us that righteousness exalts a nation. The inverse is equally true. And yet the path to righteousness in any community, any nation, any generation, runs directly through the hearts of individual people who are willing to be found, to be changed, and to go.
The Church of the Ones
There is a phrase worth carrying with you: the church of the ones. It comes from the parable Jesus told about a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to search for the single one that has wandered. The math does not make practical sense. But the kingdom of God does not operate on practical math.
Every number has a name. Every name has a story. Every story matters to God.
The temptation for any community, any organization, any person is to settle for good enough. To find a comfortable campsite halfway up the mountain and call it the destination. But there is always more. There is always a lake at the top, a view across the valley, a camping spot at the tree line waiting to be discovered by those willing to keep climbing.
So what are you boasting about today?
If the honest answer involves your own wisdom, your own strength, or your own resources, Jeremiah's ancient warning still applies. But if your boast is in the God who transforms broken lives, who works through ordinary faithfulness, and who goes searching for the one who wandered, then you are boasting in exactly the right place.
To God be the glory. That is the only boast worth making.
There is a question worth sitting with today, one that cuts through the noise of achievement, accumulation, and appearance: What are you boasting about?
It sounds like an uncomfortable question. Most of us were raised to believe that boasting is something to avoid altogether. But there is a kind of boasting, a kind of glorying, that is not only permitted but commanded. And understanding the difference between the two might be one of the most important spiritual reckonings any of us can undertake.
The Warning From an Ancient Prophet
The prophet Jeremiah wrote during one of the most turbulent seasons in the history of Judah. The nation was surrounded by shifting political alliances, rising empires, and the very real threat of collapse. And yet, on the surface, things looked fine. The temple was still open. The sacrifices were still being offered. The outward appearance of worship continued without interruption.
But Jeremiah saw beneath the surface. In Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23 and 24, he delivered a word from God warning the people not to boast in their wisdom, their military strength, or their accumulated wealth. These were the three pillars the nation leaned on. Their scholars were brilliant. Their army was formidable. Their economy had flourished during years of relative peace. And none of it would save them.
Why? Because beneath the religious ritual and national pride, the heart of the nation had drifted. The outward show continued, but the true relationship with God had eroded. Jeremiah's message was stark: all of those advantages, apart from moral and spiritual worth, amounted to nothing.
The parallel to our own moment is not difficult to see. We live in a nation that still carries the language of faith in its public life. Churches fill city blocks. Religious programming fills airwaves. And yet, by almost any honest measure, the culture around us is saturated with the very things Jeremiah warned about. The wisdom of the world is celebrated. Strength is worshiped. Wealth is the quiet ambition behind much of what drives daily life.
What Is Actually Worth Boasting About
So what does God say is worth boasting about? Jeremiah 9:24 answers directly: understanding and knowing God. Not knowing about Him. Knowing Him.
That distinction matters more than it might first appear. Knowledge about God is available to almost anyone willing to open a book. Understanding the historical narrative of Scripture, being able to recite doctrine, knowing the right theological vocabulary, none of that is the same as a living, relational knowledge of God. The kind of knowing Jeremiah describes is intimate. It is the knowledge that comes from time spent, from trust extended, from prayers offered in desperation and in gratitude alike.
The apostle Paul echoes this in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 30 and 31, where he points to Christ as the source of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, and then quotes the same principle Jeremiah established: if you are going to boast, boast in the Lord.
This is not a passive statement. It is a reorientation of the entire self. It asks us to examine what we are actually trusting. Are we trusting in the size of our platform, the strength of our programs, the impressiveness of our resources? Or are we trusting in the God who works through weakness, who chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, who delights not in the appearance of religion but in the reality of relationship?
The Stories That Tell the Real Story
Abstract theology becomes concrete in the lives of real people. And it is in those stories where the truth of this message becomes undeniable.
Consider a man who spent forty years running from God. Decades of distance. A life lived largely outside of faith, despite having once studied for ministry. Then, almost accidentally, he walks through the doors of a church because a woman he wants to date gives him no other option. He sits in a pew. Something stirs. On his way out the door, he asks to talk.
That evening, sitting in his living room, he confesses that he has run from God for forty years and is not sure God can still forgive him. The answer, of course, is that God can and does. They pray together. His life is transformed. He eventually finds a small rural church that no one else will pastor because the congregation cannot afford to pay a salary. He spends the rest of his life shepherding those people. One man. One conversation. One act of faithfulness that created a ripple no one could have predicted.
Or consider a youth group that, on the surface, might have seemed unremarkable. Teenagers playing games, learning to worship, being poured into by faithful adults who simply showed up. Years later, those teenagers are missionaries, worship leaders, and youth pastors in other states. The fruit of faithful, unglamorous investment.
Proverbs 14:34 reminds us that righteousness exalts a nation. The inverse is equally true. And yet the path to righteousness in any community, any nation, any generation, runs directly through the hearts of individual people who are willing to be found, to be changed, and to go.
The Church of the Ones
There is a phrase worth carrying with you: the church of the ones. It comes from the parable Jesus told about a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to search for the single one that has wandered. The math does not make practical sense. But the kingdom of God does not operate on practical math.
Every number has a name. Every name has a story. Every story matters to God.
The temptation for any community, any organization, any person is to settle for good enough. To find a comfortable campsite halfway up the mountain and call it the destination. But there is always more. There is always a lake at the top, a view across the valley, a camping spot at the tree line waiting to be discovered by those willing to keep climbing.
So what are you boasting about today?
If the honest answer involves your own wisdom, your own strength, or your own resources, Jeremiah's ancient warning still applies. But if your boast is in the God who transforms broken lives, who works through ordinary faithfulness, and who goes searching for the one who wandered, then you are boasting in exactly the right place.
To God be the glory. That is the only boast worth making.
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