Daily Devotional Series: Leave Your Bootstraps Alone

9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.”
James 1:9–11

James 1:1–18 is chock full of quick-hitting one-liners that catch our attention. I have rarely gone a prolonged period of time without heaving a “count it all joy!” at someone—mostly myself in the mirror. The passage is popular for good reason—it’s true.

But how often do we spend time putting all the pieces together? When you sit and think about the flow of trials, desires, and new life, you see the passage come to life in a vibrant way—kind of like I did this morning.

I thought to myself: how often do I go through some sort of trial and face the temptation to be self-reliant? The honest answer is often. In a world of information, our phones and computers seem to hold the answers to every problem life could possibly throw at us. Run out of money? A quick YouTube search can pull up an endless list of fifteen-minute videos that can bring you from zero to your first million in six months. Walking through a season of depression? Here’s a great app that walks you through daily breathing and meditation exercises to help you manage your thoughts, fears, and stresses. Heck, I can now even ask ChatGPT to act as my lawyer to help get me out of a sticky situation!

There doesn’t seem to be much need to rely on anything but our own ability to leverage the world of opportunity around us in order to endure.

But there is a great problem with this approach. And if we’re keen, we see that James addresses it: “For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes.” Guess what? The things of this world are passing away. YouTube will crash. Apps will bug out. And someday ChatGPT won’t have all the answers. It is inevitable. Like death and taxes—inevitable. The world and all it has to offer will perish.

This is why our answer to life’s problems must be rooted in so much more than a “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” philosophy of life. The bootstraps are an illusion. They give us the feeling of being in control because we always have that option—self-reliance, to pick ourselves up.

James prescribes an alternative way of life: to boast in the exalted state of lowliness. Lowliness is the place most often described on the road of trial and testing. It is weak. It is scary. It is needy. This, though, is precisely the occasion for trials in God’s good design. When we receive them as we ought—not relying on the mirage of our own bootstraps to lift us up—we see God’s purposes in our trials: to draw us closer to him by looking toward him as the provider of our every need.

And here’s the truth: our needs are provided for. Read that again. And again. And one more time until you believe it. (If you keep finding yourself struggling, go read Romans 8:32.) Our needs are provided for, but unless we turn to the Father, we cannot see that reality. When we turn and face the world, we only see the things we don’t have—things not needed.

This is why we ask for wisdom, for asking for wisdom is wise. And it turns our eyes toward the One who provides (bear with me through that moment of Dr. Seuss–style monocle wearing). When we look to the Father, we see his good gifts showering us from above. But to be fixated on what you do not have is a great pitfall into sin (see David and Bathsheba).

So look to God. Ask him for eyes to see his love and provision in your life today. Learn to rejoice in your lowliness while on your path of trials—it is there where you are most aware of God’s gifts.