What is man?

'Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils;

For why should he be esteemed?'

Isaiah 2.22

A question and a command. One is far easier than the other and so must be the best place to start. You kinda have to work up to a challenge and find reason enough to accept it. At least I do. If the challenge doesn't rest on a bed of motivation, it will always fall down. However, God is such that he never issues a challenge without giving us every reason in the world to accept it. We just have to open our eyes.

I've just changed my mind! I'm gonna do it in the order God's done it, cos i figure there's sense in that.

'Stop regarding man' is the challenge and what a challenge. It doesn't mean to stop thinking of others or take for yourself an excuse to be selfish. It means that when you do things, when I do things, little things, big things, anything; we don't do them for the praise of others. It also means that we don't do them for the sole purpose of pleasing others, we should look to please others but within the greater view of pleasing God. His pleasure is what leads us to please others. His pleasure is what controls us. So I have to stop regarding man, in order that I might regard God. It's so easy to see others and think they're great and get so caught up in trying to please them. I think the bigger challenge comes to me when 'man' is changed to 'woman'. Too often a pretty girl can be regarded as more important than God. I've gotta stop regarding man. That includes regarding myself!

The question gives me the reason to obey.

'Why should he be esteemed?'

What have I ever done that shows that I am able to live for myself?

What has anyone else done that shows that they are worthy of my high regard?

The answer must be nothing!

Even the riches of man are filthy rags before the Lord. And at the end of the day it is he who really matters. He who holds life in his hands. Man can do little for me at best. The feelings I get will always fade, often before I've even tasted them. I'm such a fool at times.

And yet . . . whiter than snow!