Proverbs 13:7:  “There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.” 

Why are we men so often hung up on trying to impress each other?  In the animal kingdom it is not uncommon for the males of the species to be huffing and puffing and otherwise trying to show how big and beautiful they are.  The object out there in the jungle is, of course, to attract a mate or as the case may be a harem. 

There must be something in the male of the species, including the human, that feels compelled to make an impression on the other males and especially the females. The text tells us that there are some people who act like they are rich when the truth is they are poor.  But there are others who have self-confidence and self-assurance that enables them to be just regular guys when in fact they are well off.  

We have all heard of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. They say that he was just a regular guy. He drove a pick-up truck. You would not have been able to tell by looking that he was at one time one of the richest men in the world.  

But then there are the nouveux rich and the faux rich. These are the people who have money but can’t resist showing it off, and the guy who appears rich but whose credit cards are maxed out and who will spend the rest of his life paying the “minimum payment” provided that he doesn’t go into Chapter 11 first! 

Fellows, why do we need to feel that we are a nobody unless we have the things that everybody else has and that we are not going to be a somebody as long as we are satisfied to be an anybody? (How did you like that play on words!) Why should I go into hock just so that I can wear a name-brand polo shirt? 

I just finished paying off my car and it only has 75k miles on it.  Why set myself up for another seven years and 35 thousand dollars just so I can impress the people at the office?  I don’t happen to be rich and I don’t need to pretend that I am, either for my own feelings or for yours.  Who are we trying to impress? Why should I spend my life trying to impress someone else? 

Having said this, as a man of God I want to be all that He meant for me to be.  I don’t want to impress Him but I want Him to inspire me to be the kind of guy that I ought to be.  And that will have less to do with the polo shirt I happen to be wearing or the car I happen to be driving and more to do with the kind of man I am.