The Truth About Fireflies

Some people go through life doing good deeds and making it a point to tell everyone about the nice things that they do for others. They may often say, “I’m just telling a good story.”
 
I can remember a local used car dealer who also happened to be a “Gideon.” Now I have a high opinion of Gideons and have considered joining the organization myself. Still, this character would show up at his assigned church on Gideons Day to promote their Bible-spreading work and in the hope of collecting money for their cause.

Not this guy! I would sit and watch him boo-hoo and tell stories about all the nice things he would do for people. He would drone on about the money and gifts he had given to the poor while crocodile-tears dripped from his cheeks. He told about some poor little poor boy who didn’t have a jacket and he bought one for him out of his own pocket. His entire talk completely, constantly and consistently centered on the things he had done for others.

Now, I saw this fellow at two different churches on two different Gideons Days over the years and both times it was the same charade. He told the same stories each time, blabbering and blubbering on about himself for the entire event. After a half an hour of sitting through this drivel, I was ready to cry myself. Albeit, not for joy, but from the pain of being trapped in the audience having to listen to this self-centered pretender endlessly sing his own praises.

I know another guy who’ll buy your dinner and then buy someone else’s dinner. He’ll loan money to a man that he claims he knows is going to take it straight to a pusher for the purpose of purchasing drugs. If he asks if you want him to pick up a snack for you at the store, he’ll insist on paying for it himself. He’ll give money and food to the old, the poor and the indigent. Then tell you and anyone else who’ll listen all about it. I even overheard him tell a couple, who obviously were trying to escape him, how he must’ve given a thousand dollars over the years to the local bum who drops in on him occasionally. He does, actually, really nothing for anyone that he doesn’t share with everyone whom he can get to shut up for two minutes while he brags on himself.

We all know those people that, whatever subject they are engaged in, they will always bring the narrative back to themselves and their own personal righteousness. They will pass on no opportunity to express to you just how good their heart is.

For some people, it’s all about them! The good that they do, however large or small, is no more than an opportunity for them to get a clever story to tell about themselves. Those listeners, who are as ignorant and self-centered as they are, agree that this braggart is as good a person as they both imagine him to be. They are as mesmerized by the teller’s façade of kindness as they are by their own. These yackers claim that they are just relating the story because, again, it’s a “good story,” but if the truth be told, they are just blowing wind about themselves. They love the sound of their own voices. They know that if they don’t tell these wonderful stories on themselves, that no one will realize what a great person they truly are.

Worse, if possible, they will attack and deride others who don’t do the public displays of charity that they are wont to do. They feel quite proud in their own conceits about the generosity that they bequeath to those around them. They “do their alms before men” and they have their reward.

My dad used to have a saying about such people. This saying applied perfectly, whether they be famous or infamous. He would often relate these words of wisdom to me when we found our conversation surrounding such pious individuals. He would smile and quip these words to me: “Son, some people are like fireflies. They’re not trying to light the world; they’re just trying to show their tails!”


Matthew 6

1. Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

2. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

3. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

4. That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.