Inside Out

Passage: Jeremiah 14:13-22

The leader of a training seminar I once attended talked about narcissistic personality disorder.  This is a condition whereby an individual is so pathologically dishonest that they believe their own lies and create an alternate reality in their minds.  They become so convinced of this internal reality that the people around them become convinced of it, too.  The instructor went on to say that narcissists appear with disproportionate regularity in the following four professions: politics; entertainment; corporate leadership; and ministry.  One of the things that guarantees success in each of these fields is selling a constituency on your view of reality – particularly if your view is more optimistic than that of your competitors. 

In Jeremiah 14 the prophet of God is surrounded by narcissists – people who are convinced God has spoken to them.  And people who claim that God’s forecast is rosy.  Jeremiah on the other hand has heard dire predictions from God – threats of impending doom if God’s people don’t change their ways.  Who wants to hear that?  Jeremiah’s competitors get their own TV programs and radio spots.  Jeremiah gets tossed out on his ear.  The problem, of course, is that Jeremiah’s telling the truth.  Jeremiah’s predicting a coming storm that will wipe his people off the face of the map unless they prepare for it.  He has what they need to correct their course and survive.  But they can’t hear it for the noise of the narcissists. 

We have become a society of narcissists.  In a recent address, Tim Keller observed that we increasingly attribute our problems to forces outside us rather than recognize the internal impulses that lead us astray.  We say, “I’m not the problem.  It’s everyone else that’s the problem.”  We refuse to listen to any voice that implies we need to change.  Keller says, “If all your problems are external, you’re hopeless.  Why? Because you can’t change those things.”  If, on the other hand, you accept what the Bible teaches – that is, that the root of our problem is the sin that has infected each one of us – then there’s hope. The antidote to narcissism is also the antidote to our problems: the Holy Spirit of God.  At Pentecost, the Spirit descends in power on those who believe in Jesus Christ.  The Spirit continues to be the agent of transformation and renewal – of our hearts and minds; and of the world around us. 

But the Spirit cannot complete his work in us if we insist the problem isn’t us.  We have to accept the Spirit’s testimony: you’re not right. So doing we can receive the rest his message: I can make you right.  We have to tune out the voices that simply reinforce our internal realities – that say, “You’re fine – it’s the rest of the world that has a problem”.   And tune in to the voices that tell us we need to change from the inside out.  We need a voice from the outside, and a power from the outside, to come and transform us from the inside.  Be willing to hear what you don’t want to hear.  And receive the one power that’s bigger than your problems.  Let the Spirit transform your inner reality, and bring you into God’s reality.