An Allegory

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Transparency. Transparency had many favorite colors, but she could never decide on just one. She enjoyed so many.

One day, Transparency met a girl named Vainglory, whose favorite color was yellow. Everything Vainglory owned was yellow. She thought that because, to her way of thinking, yellow was the best, most perfect color, it should be everyone’s favorite color, and she set out to change the World’s mind about YELLOW being the perfect color.

When the girls met, Vainglory naturally asked Transparency what her favorite color was.

Transparency couldn’t answer, so she was honest. “I don’t know. I just enjoy so many.”

“You don’t KNOW?” , Vainglory gasped. “Isn’t it obvious that YELLOW is the most perfect, lovely color in existence? Everyone who’s anyone knows that yellow is the only possible answer to that question.”

Transparency replied, “Well, I suppose I do like yellow for some things. It’s beautiful in flowers. But not for everything. I would never want a yellow car. Or yellow pants.”

Vainglory gathered Transparency in close and said, “You poor thing. You just don’t understand. But don’t you worry. We’ll fix you. Someday you’ll see how wonderful yellow is and when you do, it will be your favorite color. You can be just like me and you can be in my Yellow Club.”

Transparency wanted to be friends. She wanted to belong to a club! She admired that Vainglory was able to answer the question of favorite color with such confidence.

Soon, Vainglory and Transparency were fast friends. They were together almost every day. Vainglory worked very hard to prove the qualities of yellow to Transparency. Transparency didn’t want to hurt Vainglory, and so she tried her very hardest to love yellow.

But she couldn’t. She just didn’t love it. She tried to be honest about how many other wonderful colors she enjoyed – but it only served to have yellow forced even harder on her.

Vainglory and Transparency had other friends, too. Some of them loved yellow. Vainglory was a friend to them and invited them to join the Yellow Club. It was very exclusive.

But for those who had a different favorite color, Transparency heard Vainglory talk about them behind their backs. She heard Vainglory say things like, “Anyone who doesn’t think yellow is the most perfect color, has the right to be wrong.”

Transparency didn’t want to be talked about behind her back, so she tried even harder to like yellow. She even began to answer the question of her favorite color, with an unconvincing “Yellow?”, but she knew she wasn’t being honest. And she hated how it made her feel.

Still – she really wanted to be accepted by Vainglory and belong to the Yellow Club.

Transparency started to feel a little crazy. How could a favorite color have anything to do with whether she was acceptable or not? What was the worst that would happen if she was honest? If she was just…..herself?

Certainly, Vainglory would still be her friend – could still find something about Transparency that she liked even if they had different favorite colors, right? She tried to be honest about it with Vainglory and the Yellow Club members.

“You know – I’ve tried to love yellow. But, I just can’t say it’s my favorite. Pink is nice. I like brown – and I love black.”

Vainglory insisted, “You must choose ONE, Transparency. And black is not a color. What is wrong with you?”

“Well….”, Transparency began. She mustered up her courage and said what She Just Had to Say, “I’m kind of leaning toward….. red. Would that be okay?”

Vainglory asserted herself, “Oh, Transparency- silly girl. You just think you like red. But if you consider it carefully, I know you’ll see that yellow really is your favorite color, afterall.”

“No,” Transparency refuted, finding more resolve now. “Yellow definitely is not my favorite color. Red is my favorite color. It’s fine with me that yellow is your favorite color. I think it would be an okay thing to be different. It doesn’t have to mean that one of us is wrong. We can still be friends, right? I’d still really like to be part of your club.”

Vainglory was angry. She had failed to change Transparency to be just like her. But Vainglory had an image to maintain, so she plastered a tight smile on her face and said through clenched teeth, “Of course we can still be friends.”

Transparency didn’t want to hurt Vainglory at all. She just wanted to be herself. She wanted to have her own favorite color and still be friends.

But from then on, Vainglory stopped talking to Transparency. Vainglory was cold and unkind to Transparency and her family. And of course, Vainglory talked about Transparency behind her back.

Vainglory invited everyone except Transparency and her family to club meetings and parties. (Even people whose favorite color was something other than yellow.)

Transparency tried to still be friends with Vainglory. She invited Vainglory to come over and remembered her with gifts on her birthday and Christmas, but Vainglory refused her attempts.

Vainglory was done with Transparency.

Even though she was hurt, Transparency didn’t want revenge. She never wanted to hurt Vainglory. She decided not to tell any of their mutual friends what had happened. She knew that it wasn’t her job to vindicate herself. And she didn’t want her friends to have to choose between her and Vainglory.

Her friends, Grace and Acceptance, remained friends with Transparency – even though they were still in the Yellow Club with Vainglory.

Transparency was lonely, but she wasn’t willing to say, “Oh alright, yellow is my favorite color.” just to be accepted by Vainglory and be allowed back into the Club. She knew Vainglory was never a good friend to begin with, and knew that even though it was hard, it was for the best.

God was faithful. He gave Transparency many other friends, some new, some old – friends who had favorite colors like pink, blue, green, royal blue, and even one who couldn’t pick a favorite color!!!

And because God is amazing like this, He even gave Transparency a friend who had also been kicked out of Vainglory’s Yellow Club for having the favorite color RED!!!

All of these friends accepted Transparency, despite having different favorite colors, and prayed for her painful situation with Vainglory.

Two years later, one of the Yellow Club members, named Sweet Hypocrite (who was unwilling to admit that her favorite color was never yellow to begin with but said it was so she could stay in the Yellow Club) involved herself. She saw the truth, because the same thing had happened to her in the past.

Sweet Hypocrite told Vainglory that she was living in sin for treating Transparency so poorly.

And she told Transparency that the Bible said that unless she said her favorite color was yellow (like she had chosen to do), her offerings to God were counterfeit because she was not in “unity” with Vainglory.

AND she told Transparency that she should call Grace and tell her the truth about what Vainglory had done, because “Vainglory listens to Grace.”

Transparency was frustrated with Sweet Hypocrite for being, well, a hypocrite (even though she was still very sweet and truly well-meaning). And Transparency was disappointed that Sweet Hypocrite did not respect her boundaries with Vainglory. (Transparency knew her boundaries were a good thing. She even wrote this post about it.)

Most importantly, Transparency knew that it wasn’t her job to say that Vainglory was wrong or try to fix her. She knew that job belonged to God alone.

Well.

On Saturday night, Vainglory and Transparency agreed to meet. (To “get Sweet Hypocrite off my back” was the reason Vainglory “jokingly” gave for finally requesting the meeting.)

Vainglory told Transparency that because she couldn’t decide on a favorite color when they met, that she was unstable. And she also said that when Transparency finally decided that red was her favorite color and was unwilling to change her mind, it was a personal attack on Vainglory’s preference for yellow.

All Transparency ever wanted was to be herself, to be honest, to have a different favorite color, but still be friends.

Transparency apologized to Vainglory that yellow was not her favorite color.

Vainglory said she was very sorry that Transparency had been hurt, but that her actions were obviously justified AND that even though she knew it would hurt Transparency’s feelings to reject her, God told her to do it.

Transparency was very, very hurt. She was disappointed that living up to her name was used against her. But she wasn’t surprised.

All Vainglory really did was live up to her name

Transparency was willing to acknowledge that Vainglory may have seen a side of her that didn’t handle the pressure well to love yellow, but she felt very sad that Vainglory couldn’t accept her for who she was.

Transparency also had to admit her sin of Idolatry to the Lord – for allowing Vainglory’s acceptance of her to become more important than God’s acceptance of her.

It was hard for her to do, but she chose to be gracious and forgiving and kind, even though they were no longer friends.

In the end, Transparency knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it really was okay for her favorite color to be red. She never hated yellow. In fact, for some things she actually enjoyed it.

It just wasn’t her favorite.
———-

And THAT, my friends, for as ridiculous as it all sounds – is exactly what happened.