Let’s get real. How often has your ego led you down a dangerous path of self-delusion and destruction? Perhaps that sounds a bit melodramatic, but that’s exactly what an over-inflated ego will do.

In 2003, at just 19 years of age, Elizabeth Holmes founded the health technology company Theranos in Pal Alto, California, the heart of Silicon Valley. The company promised to revolutionise blood testing. Charismatic and driven, Holmes styled herself as the next Steve Jobs. But behind the vision was deception. As cracks formed, instead of admitting failure her ego drove her to mislead investors, patients, and the public.

Following a peak valuation of US$9 billion, Theranos collapsed after investigative reporting in 2015 exposed the fraud. What began as ambition curdled into arrogance. Had Holmes humbled herself early, the damage might’ve been contained—but her ego demanded the illusion of success at any cost. Writes the Apostle Paul:

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (ESV)

Goodbye ego, hello Jesus. Now, to be sure, there’s a cost to laying down our lives, to accepting Jesus as Lord, to allowing our old self to be crucified with Christ. Let me be blunt: it hurts.

But what comes next is a freedom from self, from ego, from the dangers of ruin because now we can live our lives by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.