Ozymandias and the Magnificat A study in contrast.

By Charles Moncrief

Ozymandias 1817, by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said--"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desart....Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away."

The Magnificat (Mary’s Song), Luke 1:46-55 My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy is His name! His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has showed strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble and meek. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful, even as He promised, to Abraham and his descendants forever.

In the two texts at the beginning of this article I am moved by contrasting attitudes. Shelly’s sonnet was said to be about Ramses the Great, the Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus. Both his name and his job title contain the letters “RA” to honor the Egyptian sun God. In fact, Pharaoh was understood to be a human incarnation of Ra. From such a mindset, it was easy for him to be drunk with a sense of power and to lord it over his subjects. Today, however, other than when the Ramses exhibit toured the United States, hardly anyone gives a thought to this man of great power and influence nearly four thousand years ago.

Shelly caught the essence spoken of in Mary’s song about dethroning the mighty and scattering the proud in the imaginations of their hearts. If history even bothers to mention them, it’s with a sense of mockery and ridicule.

Who would be the Ozymandias in a person’s life?

The flesh-tearing abusive spouse or parent?

The adulterous homicidal maniac elected to the position of county commissioner?

The mass murderer who falsifies autopsies in the medical examiner’s office?

The bench rodent who favors cronies over justice when rendering court rulings, letting killers go free to kill again?

The lawmakers who look the other way rather than to take action against human traffickers?

The human traffickers themselves?

Whose heads would look good half-buried in the desert sands, separated from their trunkless legs, with proud epitaphs to mock them? But to anyone whose lives have ripped apart by the fallen proud, this is small comfort. Maybe this is because a different focus might be in order.

This is why I’ve set next to Shelley’s poem the Song of Mary. A teenage Jewish girl in a conquered land received a job offer. In fact, it was for the greatest job a Jewish woman of the first century could do. After receiving Mary’s answer, the messenger left her to reflect on the significance of what she’d been offered.

Like Ozymandias, Mary begins to express a sense of greatness. Unlike Ozymandias, she never loses her perspective. Her greatness comes from someone far greater than she should ever be, and that it is from first to last due to the grace and favor granted her by God. Never does she become filled with herself, but she always directs attention to the One who blessed her. In fact, her heart would be grieved by all this elevation and adoration she receives today. Her eternal destiny is in the hands of God’s grace, no more and no less than our eternal destiny depends on the same God.

The job this humble Jewish girl took on, while the greatest in the world, was also the most heart-wrenching. She watched her son die at the hands of those who were capable of the cruelest form of savagery known to humankind in that day. And yet, she stayed humble. There is no record of her having called out for the condemnation of those who acted with such cruelty. And while she may have had some special insights granted to her about such things, maybe we do as well. Maybe if we can pray for our enemies, rather than rejoice in their ruin, maybe it could possibly help us to get by. And maybe, just maybe, in time it may help us to find healing.

Grace and Peace,

Charles+

Finding Contentment by Killing Comparisons

By Anne Peterson

Being a Facebook user, I love posting prayer requests or sharing photographs with friends and family members. Within seconds news travels through cyberspace, lessening the distance between family and friends. Unfortunately, this also becomes a temptation for comparisons, which lead to discontent.

We log on and see one of our friends has happily posted an achievement. Instead of responding with heartfelt congratulations, we turn a little green.Isn't this the same thing I've labored on for years with few results? Defeated, we log off, busying ourselves with something else.

Learn more through:Psalms: Managing Your Emotions.

What can we do when we are tempted to compare ourselves with others? 

Why is this such an obstacle to contentment?

Making comparisons is nothing new. Cain compared himself to Abel. Jesus' disciples struggled with this too. In one conversation, they tried to determine which of them would suffer in the future, and who would be spared. Jesus asked them, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?" (John 21:23).

When we compare ourselves with others we are not walking by faith. Instead, we are trying to control things. Comparisons get us into trouble for at least two reasons.

1) They can make us feel better than the person we are comparing ourselves to, leading to pride. Remember the publican who thanked God that he wasn't a sinner? The enemy of our souls loves it when we struggle with pride. It was his downfall.
2) They can make us feel worse than the person we are comparing ourselves to, leading to low self-esteem, which still keeps our focus on ourselves. Although it says in James that God is not a respecter of persons, we do not believe this if we believe God is withholding something from us that is rightfully ours.

To be content, we need to swap lies for truth
Sometimes we even compare how God is working now with how he has worked in the past. In this way we bring God down to our level, judging his track record. This is arrogance. God tells us in Isaiah 55:8, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord." In other words, we don't think like God. He wants us to walk in step with his Spirit. That means we are not to run ahead of him pulling him where we want him to be, nor are we to get behind him pushing him in the direction we want him to go. God is immovable.

As much as God wants us to walk by faith, Satan, the enemy of our souls, is determined to point out little things we hold against God. When Satan introduces these lies to us, we need to refute them. The only way we will be equipped to do that is if we saturate ourselves with the truth. The lies he tells us have a little truth mixed in, making them harder to recognize as lies. Only as we learn Scripture can we sort them out.

The world is forever pointing out things that should be ours, creating in us a sense of entitlement. Then Satan points us to those who have attained the things we hope for, pushing us farther down the road of discontentment.

Focus on the Lord when you are tempted to compare yourself with others. David, whom God called a man after his own heart, was given armor to wear when he was going to fight Goliath. The armor was too large for his small frame, but David didn't go searching for different armor so that he could replicate others who went out in battle. Instead, David's focus was on God's character, not on his opponent. God, who had helped David in the past, would continue to help him as he faced Goliath. All of us have had experiences of trusting God. We need to remind ourselves of his faithfulness.

To be content, we need to praise God in all circumstances
God is always looking out for our good. Knowing this about God is essential for us during our times of trial, when some things don't make sense. God is more concerned about transforming us into the image of his Son than he is about how it will temporarily affect us.

The apostle Paul was beaten, imprisoned, stoned, and shipwrecked. Still, in prison chains, he wrote to the church that he was content no matter his circumstances. He tells us to be content in our circumstances, not thankful for our circumstances. When things go wrong, what can we praise God for? We can praise him for who he is. Our circumstances do not diminish his character. He never becomes less than he is.

If we just start praising him, as David did in the Psalms, we will be reminded of other reasons he is worthy of praise. Satan is the only one who doesn't want us to praise God, so he will continually try to get our focus off the Lord. Satan loves it when we focus on what we don't have, what God hasn't done for us, or how God has seemingly let us down. Satan is the original killjoy.

Too often we praise God only when we feel like praising him. Offering God praise has nothing to do with our feelings. Instead, when we are going through a difficult time, our praise becomes a sacrifice to him.

Charles Swindoll says that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to what happens to you. We act as if it's the other way around. The apostle Paul encourages us to rejoice in the Lord always. That is much different from rejoicing in what is going on with us. If Solomon had told us to rejoice, we might have a problem with that. After all, wasn't Solomon the richest man around? But Paul was talking to us with chains on.

To be content, we have to kill the dragons of comparison
I have started challenging myself lately. When I see a status on a newsfeed that ruffles my feathers, I ask God to help me to pray for that person. It makes things easier when I'm honest with God, telling him how I feel. He knows anyway. Then, I begin to praise him.

Try singing to the Lord. When my heart is singing, whether I'm on key or not, my mind moves off of myself. I sing old hymns, such as "Jesus Never Fails" and "How Great Thou Art," because they are loaded with truths about the Lord. A couple of lines into a hymn and I find that I no longer wonder when I'm going to get the thing I'm working toward, but instead am thinking about God and all the wonderful things he has done.

Contentment is attainable, but first we must kill the dragons of comparison. And they will die as long as we keep our eyes focused on the King of Kings, the only one worth looking at.

The stick I made for measuring
I used most every day.
It helped me to compare myself
with others on my way.
I watched all those behind me,
or further down the road,
and I would readjust my pace
or lighten up my load.
The only real drawback
with how I ran my race
was watching everything around,
except my Savior's face.

Anne Peterson is a freelance author, poet, and speaker. To read Anne's blog or to engage her as a speaker, go to http://annepeterson.com/.

This article first appeared in www.christianbiblestudies.com, posted January 31, 2011