Why Vanity Is Destroying Our Health

Vanity – Pride, conceit, fraud, self-importance, self-absorbed, arrogance, egotism, big-headedness, narcissism.

Job said again and again, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” Why did he repeat this and why did he believe this? Certainly he felt all was vain when he described how all of his hard work was going to be given to someone else after he died. I suppose we all could feel a little like that at some point in time and question ourselves, “What’s this all about?”

Let’s ask ourselves this – “Am I following vanity.” When we follow vanity, we become vain and pursue things that are useless to ourselves and others; though it may not appear that way from the outside, we are gaining nothing on the inside. Vanity creates an emptiness within that secretly craves to be filled by a greater meaning and purpose. Living this way can seem all to normal to one who isn’t aware of it and we end up trusting in our vanity instead of the One who is worthy to be trusted with our life. One thing we know for certain is that the Lord will not hear vanity nor regard it (Job 35:13) because vanity turns God’s glory into shame (disgrace, dishonor, embarrassment, indignity). We are told in Psalms – Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation (Psalm 24:3-4). Thank the Lord we have Jesus who has washed our sins away by His blood and defeated death for us, thereby giving us eternal life, that we do not have to depend on our own goodness (which would never be enough) to enter into the Lord’s presence. But what we can learn from this verse is the desire our Lord has for us; to keep away from a vain heart.

I was reminded by my big sister some time ago, that this world is passing away and all that is within it. It is statements like these that put me behind myself and bring me to a place of meaningful contemplation. I thought about the world passing away, and how we will all one day pass away, but it doesn’t end there. For believers in the One who conquered sin and death for us, a new world will be established and we will reign with the Lord for eternity. I thought to myself, what part of our being will be left when we “transfer” from this place? Certainly we are told we are getting a new body. So all of the sickness and pain we have suffered on earth, will be done away with and our heavenly bodies will reflect a body like Jesus had when he was resurrected from the dead. Surely, we will inhabit the individual, unique person God has made each one of us to be. So what about all of our labors here on earth? Is it all in vain? Why care about our jobs, or our character building, or our self-discipline? Why care about the earth and Gods beauty and God’s creation? Lastly, why even care about health? Does it matter anyways?

I certainly think it does. I have benefited greatly by the topic my sister brought up, and am thankful to have been able to see even further the impact our daily ambitions make on our hearts. It does matter how we live today and we need to know the reason behind why we do what we do and more importantly, who we do it for, the Lord and our family, and in return we are taken care of. What we seek in this life surely should not be in vain (useless, pointless) and surely the Lord does not want our limited energies going towards things not worthy. On another note, God does not want us to sit in a corner or be like robots. Rather, he made us unique beings who have passions, and body’s that require caring for, and life that He wants us to be lively about. In all of this, we are reflecting His beautiful person.

Let us take a moment to think about why we are doing what we are doing and find the Lord in that place. If we cannot, then maybe that endeavor is futile. But if we can, let us love Him and honor Him through it and use it to give glory to His name. His beauty and truth is reflected in our inner being. Let us be a reflection of His goodness.

Journeying together,

Kari