Humility & Pride

Pride is an interesting thing-taking pride in your work, your appearance, & your communications is a good thing for example. However being "prideful" is a dangerous & slippery slope. There is a reason the Word says "Pride comes before a fall". It is the natural order of things that if something is off balance, out of line, etc. it is going to eventually run amuck! So it is with us when our pride gets in the way of our better behavior, our better choices, our appropriate speech. We have all at one time or another gotten puffed up probably and said or done something we shouldn't have, but often it is a way of life with a person-even a Christian! Oh horrors! Truly? Yes, truly! Pride is that sneaky little weapon of the enemy that makes us think we are all that & then some! We often think we "deserve" to treat ourselves (while letting others go without or when we should not, is the context I am putting this in) - or - we think we are justified in avoiding doing something we know full well the Lord would want us to do because we, after all, do so much else - or - we attempt to control situations because we think we have all the answers! (This person is easy to spot-they will always correct everyone or always have a better way than everyone else, down to the silliest things & things they truly know nothing about!) Intelligence & education do not always make us right. We all have areas we are knowledgeable in, but when we purport to be the authority on life we are straying far beyond our capacity-we are then playing God. So....BOOM! We fall, and we are surprised no less. Now why should we be? We shouldn't, but our pride has blinded us and we only see what we want to see-the us that we want everyone to believe & revere!



Humility is the exact opposite, and again there is sincere humility & false humility. I have seen people be quiet & unpretentious in public and be hailed as humble when in fact if you went home with them you would see a totally different person emerge! True humility is exhibited, I believe, in a genuine servant mentality. If you can take the time to help an old man in the grocery, or give your spouse a hand with chores, or visit the sick, write a note of encouragement, take that $5 you were going to spend at the DQ and buy a homeless person a lunch, babysit for a friend, etc. etc. simply because it is the right thing to do & it brings great joy to your heart then you are a person of humility. These are lessons we must re-learn every single day. One of the areas Satan works on a lot I believe is our "self", trying to make us care more about ourself than others because that WILL cause strife, hurt, and disorder. Christ cared SO much about us he laid down his life in a most painful way. We must learn to lay down our life in both the small & the big ways. The small ways are the hardest ones - they are the ways that often no one sees & we get little or no credit in man's eyes, so....we choose to ignore those chances to give glory to God by serving another in some way! Shovelling a friend's walk, giving a stranger a compliment, sending an anonymous gift or card to bless the day of a loved one (or a stranger!), saying "I'm sorry" (for being a jerk, for sounding like a jerk, etc.).



If you find life is going smoothly and you feel spiritual joy in what you do & say & can forgive the prideful folks you meet you are probably walking in humility. If you find Godly folks who know you well are annoyed with what you do & say more often than not & the joy and balance in life seems out of whack, maybe you are operating in a prideful way. If there are more "falls" than victories we need to examine what preceded the fall. There is an old saying "put mouth in gear, engage foot". Have you said or done stupid or hurtful things to suit your own agenda on a regular basis. Pride has tunnel vision-it only sees what it wants to see, responds only to what it wants to, and often attacks anything that might threaten that self-contained environment. There is an entitlement aspect to pride-that attitude that I am owed something, that often carries with it ungratefulness for things done for the individual. Humility has a loving worldview that defers to others without thought of personal gain or acclaim. Humility quite simply loves to give.



Christ was humble above all & we do well to strive to be more Christlike every day. It is a process, but one we should re-evaluate often.