In the late 12th century, Bernard of Chartres wrote that “we are like dwarves perched on the shoulders of giants and thus we are able to see more and farther…” Sir Isaac Newton reiterated the sentiment, and no doubt the internet now attributes the statement to Mark Twain, the web’s repository of all lost and found quotes.
It is a truism that we are dependent on others. It is also a truism that people who are flush with the self-satisfied feeling of success hate to be reminded that they are dependent. No matter how much effort or brilliance we have invested in our achievements, they are not solely attributable to us. We owe our success to our parents and teachers, to the common cultural attainments of language and art. We work by the light of electric lamps, invented and developed by other minds and maintained as a common good by society at large. This email traversed an infrastructure we rely on daily. You get the picture.
Oh, but we easily forget the picture and want to claim all credit for ourselves, as though we were the Creator and we, ourselves, our sole creation. What else is implicit in the old-fashioned phrase: “a self-made man”? King Nebuchadnezzar thought of himself as a self-made man, even though the prophet Daniel warned him against the dangers of his arrogant pride.
[T]he king said, “Is this not magnificent Babylon, which I have built as a royal capital by my mighty power and for my glorious majesty?” (Daniel 4:30)
No sooner had these words passed the mouth of Nebuchadnezzar than he was reduced to a kind of insanity. He spent the next seven years living like a wild beast, sleeping in the fields, his hair grown wild and his nails as long as talons.
Nebuchadnezzar’s descent from greatness to living like a beast was not just a punishment. It was his salvation. He was brought down to earth, literally. He returned to earth from his place of self-elevation. He was made humble. (The root of the word is humus, which is Latin for earth. The humble person is down-to-earth.) After his years spent in humility he was restored to sanity. Then he declared:
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are truth, and his ways are justice; and he is able to bring low those who walk in pride. (Daniel 4:37)
We are not self-made. We are made by God. We didn’t build our life’s work alone. We depend on God and one another.
Prayer: Lord of heaven and earth, you alone make us what we are. Grant us humility to honor you and all those upon whom we depend. Amen.