… then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. – Deuteronomy 8:14

Today's Scripture Reading (February 24, 2025): Deuteronomy 8

Has someone ever told you that "they have pulled themselves up by the bootstraps?" Maybe you have used the phrase yourself. Often, what we mean when we use the phrase is that we have accomplished some goal strictly through our own personal effort. No one helped us; we didn't have a parent give us our first million dollars. We possess everything we have through hard work; we did it ourselves. "We have pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps."

I question the premise. Regardless of how hard we have worked, most of us have had help from someone or even benefited from luck at some point in the process. I know I have. My parents did not give me a million dollars, but they loved and supported me when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Friends have done that as well; some even helped me without expectation of repayment, just asking me to pay it forward. We have all received help somewhere and need to recognize that assistance.

But let me go back to the phrase, and especially the origin of it. Bootstraps, the fabric at the back of a boot that you use to pull on to get your foot into a boot, originated in the mid-1800s. If you are a fan of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, which takes place in the 1700s, you might remember the character of "Bootstrap Bill." However, the character is an anachronism because bootstraps weren't a thing in the 1700s. Sometime after we started to pull our boots on with the assistance of that little piece of material attached to the heel of our boots, the phrase appeared in a physics textbook. The concept was formed as a question. Is it possible to lift yourself up by your bootstraps? Can you lift yourself off the ground by pulling at your bootstraps? Why or why not? And the answer is no, that is impossible, just like you can't lift yourself off the ground by lifting the chair on which you are sitting. To lift anything, you need something that is firmly connected to the ground. If you could pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you would be saying that you have learned to levitate or maybe even fly. 

So, the next time someone brags that they lifted themselves up by their bootstraps, the answer is, "No, you didn't." Because that is physically impossible, no one can do that, regardless of what we think.

God is saying the same thing. He has brought Israel to a place where they will be able to build a future. It is a place where they can build homes, grow crops, and pasture animals. It is a place where they can take care of their wants and desires as well as the needs of their neighbors. And the temptation was going to be, "I did this. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps." The people will become proud and forget all God has done to support them. In doing so, they will plant their seeds of destruction because God will let them, and us, go it alone if that is what we want.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 9