Carly Simon was right about mankind, our culture and, unfortunately, the church when she wrote “You’re So Vain”.  We do think the song is about us, don’t we?

God is wonderful and humans are depraved.  Any other worldview, to whatever degree it departs from this, moves away from fundamental reality.  The Church is supposed to be God’s means of sharing truth with the world.  It is tragically unfortunate that we think His song is about us.

Carly’s song always puzzled me because it was obvious it had enough specifics to be about someone or even more than one.  Wouldn’t they recognize themselves?  Would that be vanity?  I got to thinking about God’s love as manifested in what we call the Gospel.  He loved us (though we have no merit or value except what He assigns to us) and sent his Son to die for us.  When we acknowledge the truth of our need for a savior (we have no merit) and accept His sacrifice as a substitution to pay for our sin, we receive His salvation.  It is entirely a gift (free) of His great love and grace.  We do nothing but receive.  There is nothing we can do; we are powerless to deal with who we are.  All we can do is recognize Him and receive what He has done.

Since God has done it all, you’d think we would understand that the Gospel and in fact all of life is about Him.  It is for His glory.  It doesn’t take us long, however, to usurp the central place for ourselves.  We think that since God said it was about us, that it is about us (insert song here).  Wrong we are.  God’s love and grace extended to us is an indication of how great, loving and gracious He is.  Our unworthiness (further illustrated by our usurpation of the central place) is proof of His greatness.

Like spoiled children, we expect His good gifts and even demand them.  The greater tragedy is that many churches have made this vanity a part of their teaching.  The truth is God is not there for us, we are here for Him.  We are unworthy, and any blessing or gift is a token of His great grace.  We have attempted to lure people to God by telling them lies about themselves.  The realization of who He is, who we are and what He has done is the only thing that can set us free from the vanity of life.  Once free, we humbly give all glory to the Lord, expecting nothing in return.

When it is about us, it is not about Him!  Carly was right, but truth can set us free.