It's true. I've got a business card with my face painted on it. I had this painting, which is also framed and on display in the HM office meeting area, in a small snow globe thing, where you can put any photo or image you'd like in there. I have since replaced it with the great servant-poet, Levi Macallister, but still ... I had a snow globe with my face in it. Recently I thought about customizing my credit card with my own artwork on it. I thought about using the new round-HM logo brand I designed on it, along with my painted mug.
I really like being honored, too. When someone says how great I am, it makes me feel really good. I can act humble and do and think things that "put me in my place," but my mind and heart easily wanders to that place where I imagine myself being honored. Sometimes it's a situation where an armed gunman enters a room and I tackle him, take him down and save the day. Being interviewed for the news and thanked by everyone, I imagine myself the hero.
This whole egomaniac thing goes way back, too. When I was 14 years old, I spent the summer working on my uncle's farm in Kansas. The small town of Beloit held its first ever skateboard contest, which was a series of downhill slalom races between safety/construction cones (you know, the ones with large square bases - a far cry from the cone-only slalom cones designed specifically for skateboarding and such). Although I wasn't a California skater yet (I was in the process of moving from the East Coast city of Fairfax, VA, to the West Coast Air Force Base known as Edwards), I still had the only skateboard in the race with decent sealed bearings and wheels (the Kryptonic "blues" to be exact), and it seemed like I had the most skateboard experience. While one or two athletic guys challenged me with really good efforts, I imagine my equipment gave me the edge to win the thing. What's funny is the grand prize was, I think, ten bucks and a Nash plastic bends-in-the-middle skateboard from the local discount store. I would never ride this thing. What's funny and egomaniacal about all this is I took the prize money when I arrived in California and went to a trophy shop and I had a skateboard statuette trophy made for me. How insanely egotist is that? I need help, people!
How does one fight ego or put it in its place?
One way is to find people that are better than you at something. Humbling yourself and learning from others is a good way to improve, too.
Another way is to simply thank the God that made you, acknowledging that He gave you the ability to hone these skills, etc. While some people get annoyed and laugh at the athletes who "thank their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ," when being interviewed on tv after a game, one thing they're probably trying to do is simply give that kind of gratitude back to God, acknowledging that He gave them this opportunity by His grace. God wants us to be grateful. Jesus asked those around Him, "Where are the other nine?" He healed ten lepers and only one came back and thanked Him for it.
Another way is to realize that, if you do care so much about what other people think about you, it would be good to know that those around you no doubt roll their eyes and think negative things about you when you exhibit such imature and selfish motives as an egomaniacal attitude.
Another way is to be real and admit that you're a selfish, immature egomaniac. It's better than faking it and acting humble when inside you're puffing yourself up. In the confession will sometimes come repentance, which is the turning around or changing of the attitude.
A couple good verses come to mind. One is:
"Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
someone else, and not your own lips."
Another is Proverbs 27:21:
"The crucible for silver,
the furnace for gold,
but a man is tested by the praise accorded him."