Quiet Fire Devotional | The Crown That Chokes

Herbert Berkley
Aug 9
3 min read

Updated: Sep 6

The Crown That Chokes

(Ecclesiastes 2:1–11; Luke 9:23; Galatians 1:10)

You can feel it in the room before you even name it. That magnetic pull toward self—where every story, every victory, every hardship somehow arcs back to one subject: me. In another age, Solomon called it vanity under the sun. Today, it’s got cleaner lighting and better angles.

We call it personal brand.

It’s the religion of our age: Be your own king. Have it your way. Not the burger ad—though the slogan might as well have been carved into our timelines and hearts. It’s the promise of absolute agency—your voice amplified, your image curated, your narrative untouchable. And yet, it’s the very pattern Solomon diagnosed as hollow three thousand years ago:

“Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind…” (Ecclesiastes 2:11, ESV)

Under the sun, crowns are made of vapor.

Self at the Center Is Still Self in Chains

The danger isn’t that self-focus makes you unpopular. The danger is that it makes you sovereign—over a kingdom that cannot save you. The crown may glitter, but it’s ornamental. And it tightens.

Paul saw the trap in Galatians 1:10:

“If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Swap “please man” for “please myself,” and the same truth holds: you can’t serve two kings when one of them is you.

The Inverse Invitation

Jesus’ offer in Luke 9:23 sounds almost absurd in a culture of self-rule:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

This isn’t erasure—it’s liberation. It’s not about losing yourself into nothingness; it’s about losing yourself into Someone. It’s removing the crown from your own head and placing it into His scarred hands. Only then does identity stop being a project to manage and start being a gift to receive.

Solomon’s Journal vs. Our Feed

Scroll through his memoir in Ecclesiastes and it reads like an ancient Instagram feed:

New gardens planted.
Exotic collections acquired.
Lavish experiences sampled.
All documented in the quiet boast of a king who had it all.

But unlike our captions, Solomon leaves in the part we crop out: “All was vanity and a striving after wind.”

Why the Crown Chokes

You must invent your worth daily.
You must guard your glory from fading.
You must expand a kingdom you cannot keep.

No algorithm, no applause, no follower count changes this truth: under the sun, the self is a small throne.

Why the Cross Frees

Your worth is declared by Another.
Your glory is borrowed from His endless light.
Your kingdom is eternal because it’s His.

John the Baptist said it with the clarity of a man who had no use for ornamental crowns:

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30, ESV)

Questions for a Quiet Heart

Where in your life are you guarding the crown instead of surrendering it?
What parts of your story do you keep curated for the sake of image rather than truth?
When was the last time you felt joy in being hidden in Christ rather than seen by man?

Closing Invitation

Fear God. Keep His commandments. Let your life be shaped by the King who wears a crown that cannot be stolen and whose reign will not end.