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

not mine, but Yours

Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done. Luke 22:42

The story of Gethsemane is a well-known one. Jesus, in a moment perhaps showing his moment of greatest human frailty, prostrates himself in prayer asking that he would not have to do what was about to happen - his own crucifixion.

Yesterday, I was wondering to myself about the mystery of this confession. Jesus, the God-man, being terrified of physical death. It reminded me of how human he was, and how he took zero short-cuts to bring us redemption. No smaller sacrifice would do to bring salvation to the complete depravity of mankind.

So he submitted himself to a Will that was greater than what his flesh desired. Does the fear of physical torment make him any less divine? Does supreme knowledge deaden our senses? Does the prospect of immunization make getting pricked by a needle any less dreadful?

Dying to ourselves is never an easy thing. Repeating the prayer of Jesus, "Not my will, but yours," is the killing of what we desire to fulfill a greater destiny. I guess that's why Jesus also said, before he was crucified:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Mark 16:24 (NIV)

And yet, we continue to wrestle. We continue to fail. We continue to let our desires get in the way of following God's will for our lives.

Thank God that Jesus was able to do it for us, providing the grace we need to get back on our feet. When we are unwilling to say: "Not my will, but Yours." When we can't deny ourselves. I know that I fall so short of this.

But there comes a point when we just get tired of falling on our faces, getting muddied up, bruising our knees, and out-of-joint. That's when we realize it's thanks to Jesus that we can still go to God and say: "Not my, but Your Will be done."



In close, I just want to share this awesome description of Jesus, from Paul's letter to the Philippians:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:6-8


Note on Paintings: (1) Hands in Gethsemane, artist unknown. (2) Christ in Gethsemane, by Michael D. O'Brien.