PRIDE

It oozes in us... C.S. Lewis calls it "the Great Sin". How do we gain perspective on this issue? Lord, please make us humble through love.

A quick search for "pride" on biblegateway reveals the gravity of this sin:

2 Chronicles 26:16
But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall.

Psalm 10:4
In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.

C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, writes: "A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you."

So how do we fix this? Pride... It goes so deep. I see it in myself. I see it in the way I interact others. How can I get over myself?

I decided to do an image search of "humility" and glanced at the mosaic of pictures in front of me. A number of them struck me, including a Muslim woman wearing her hijab and some decorative quotes. Then I saw this picture:



The Bible is filled with remedial verses on the issue of pride, but nothing stands out more, nor is more humbling, than Paul's letter to the Philippians, Chapter 2:

Verses 3-4
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

If you, like me, get owned by these two short verses. Take encouragement in this:

Verses 5-9
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!



Yes, I am prideful. Yet, The Master washes my feet. How am I to respond to this? Lord, help me to love others. Thank You for loving this sinner. Lord, grant me true humility... I can only do it because You've done it first.


"We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19

Pictures taken (without permission) from: http://humblepiety.blogspot.com and http://1.bp.blogspot.com

Message to a Friend

I just wrote this to a friend. I wonder if it applies to you?

-------,

Thanks so much for your e-mail. It's great to hear from you... It's been a while!

I prayed for you this morning. I prayed for God to show you His sovereignty and to provide for you. To be honest, ------- - I struggle with the same exact things. I want to take my life into my own hands and twist circumstances to serve the idols of my heart.

And they really are idols. Why? Because we desire them more than we desire God. In them, we place our salvation, our trust, and hope. For me, that is a relationship with a girl. Of course, there is nothing wrong with relationships - but I think we have a tendency to adopt the view that "the grass is greener on the other side". And so us single folk want to be with people, and those who are in relationships realize that it is indeed no panacea for the loneliness and longing. Relationships don't play out the way that k-dramas or fiction lead us to believe that they will.

My inspiration to write this to you draws from Mere Christianity's short chapter on Hope. I read it this morning as a devotional and I think it is really applicable in this situation.

Anyway, I just want to encourage you ------- - trust in the Lord. Let Him be our treasure. I pray this over both of us, because I also put my hope in a relationship, put my hope in some finite point in the future; when really, we should just try to get a glimpse of God's glory. Nothing else compares to the day when we will finally meet our Lord and understand fully his Will, his Purpose, his Power, and everything else.

As it says in 1 Corinthians 13, following Paul's description of what true Love is, he goes on to say:

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Be encouraged -------. The greatest treasure of all is already ours in Jesus. We do not fully grasp the glory of it now, but we will one day. Perhaps a relationship is a means to getting a better glimpse of that picture, but it's not everything.

God bless you.

With love,


Daniel

The Beauty of Ephemerality

Taken from C.S. Lewis' classic, Mere Christianity:

... "What is more (and I can hardly find words to tell you how important I think this), it is just the people who are ready to submit to the loss of the thrill and settle down to the sober interest, who are then most likely to meet new thrills in some quite different direction. The man who has learned to fly and becomes a good pilot will suddenly discover music; the man who has settled down to live in the beauty spot will discover gardening."


Let that sink in...


"This is, I think, one little part of what Christ meant by saying that a thing will not really live unless it first dies. It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill: that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go - let it die away - go on through that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follow - and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time. But if you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them artificially, they will all get weaker and weaker, and fewer and fewer, and you will be a bored, disillusioned old man for the rest of your life."

"...It is because so few people understand this that you find many middle-aged men and women maundering about their lost youth, at the very age when new horizons ought to be appearing and new doors opening all round them. It is much better fun to learn to swim than to go on endlessly (and hopelessly) trying to get back the feeling you had when you first went paddling as a small boy." (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p.100-101)


I guess it's best to let go of the cherry blossoms. I won't wish them to stay. I will wait in quiet expectation as the green leaves emerge and usher in the warmth of spring.


Photo: by Stefan Schauwecker, taken (without permission) from japan-guide.com