Practicing Secrecy in an Age of Influenceናሙና

Self-Promotion: Addressing Our Tendency to Want to Be Seen By Others

Culture tells us to promote ourselves early and often when it comes to "having our good deeds and qualities generally known" by others. Daily, we are hit with a barrage of messages advising us that if we don't shine the spotlight on our accomplishments, no one else will.

If you win an award at work, post it on social media so everyone knows. If one of your children gets into a prestigious school, make sure to bring it up in conversation with all of your friends and family. If you take part in serving a meal at your local homeless shelter, don't forget to take a picture of your group to share with your church family.

Now, there are certainly times when these responses might be perfectly acceptable. However, when learning to practice the discipline of secrecy, we must understand that our default position is bent toward self-promotion, a position that culture has relentlessly tried to form in us.

In what we now know as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses our tendency to want to be seen by others. (See Matthew 6:1-18)

In Matthew 6:2, Jesus warns his listeners then and now not to hire a full-scale marching band to announce to the world that they have just given a large sum of money to a prominent organization. Instead, as His apprentices, we are encouraged to pursue hiddenness and anonymity, so much so that our left hand doesn't even know what our right hand is doing.

Just a few verses later, Jesus again addresses the hypocrites who loved to rent out the biggest stages to deliver lengthy monologues of self-promotion disguised as prayer. Again, Jesus provides an alternative: find a solitary place where you can sit in stillness, ready to listen to the voice of the Lord.

Finally, Jesus takes aim at one of the most visible acts of self-righteousness of His day. When the hypocrites practiced the discipline of fasting, they would go to great lengths to amplify their piety by distorting their faces as if to say, "Look at me." Again, Jesus offers a better way: Wash your face, brush your teeth, and make every effort to keep your act of fasting between you and the Father.

As Jesus' followers, what would it look like if, when an opportunity arises to promote our good deeds and qualities, our default position was secrecy instead of self-promotion? What if we were to slow down, go into the secret place with Jesus, and ask Him if what we are about to share online or in conversation with others should be kept between Him and us?