Laura J. Davis

Read Genesis 11:1-9

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to give yourself more credit than you are due? We have a tendency to present ourselves to people (especially ones we are just meeting) with an over-inflated sense of self-importance. Like the people in today's reading, we want to make a name for ourselves. Everyone does it. From titles that we spend years in school to receive, just so we can say with pride, "I have a doctorate in...", to big homes that we (secretly) hope others will envy, to fancy cars, important jobs, church involvement and perfect families. We, like the people in our reading today, are constantly building towers to ourselves, rather than bringing glory to God and we don't even realize it.

For example - lets look at the area of family life and our expectations we have for each other - especially our children. We want them to obey us, get good grades, a good job, grow up without embarrassing us (too much) and live a life that WE can be proud of. Why do we do that? For some, our spouses and our children become our reason for living. We cannot fathom a world without them. We put so much into their lives, their well-being, that we lose our own identity. This is usually a problem only women experience. They tend to worry about every little detail. Men on the other hand, have it in their heads that they have to work, work and work some more, to provide the very best for their families. The end result being that they spend very little time with the families they are building a future for. Children, pressured to live up to their parents expectations to get good grades, a good job, etc. have more pressure on them to succeed these days then ever before.

We are tower builders. We build towers of pride in ourselves, our homes, our work, our kids, our reputations, our church, etc. When the people of Babylon began the tower of Babel they said in their hearts, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." And what did God do? He scattered them over the face of the earth. Why? Because they were so ambitious that they tried to compete with each other and forgot they were there to serve and glorify God.

The drive to be perfect in all we do, means nothing if it is not for the glory of God. What kinds of "towers" have you built in your life? Are  you honouring God as you should? Think about it.

"The one sole thing in myself in which I glory is that I see in myself nothing in which I can glory." - Catherine of Genoa