The heart of the world is breaking under this load of pride and pretense. A.W. Tozer
Pride: an inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit or superiority, conceit, smugness, self-importance, egotism, arrogance.
The last, and perhaps the worst, of the Eight Deadly Thoughts that derail us and propel us away from God.
We’re convinced the main goal of life is to achieve a high self-esteem, and it shows.
We are quick to take offense, quick to feel superior, quick to believe we are better than we are, to give ourselves the credit for what we have achieved. We “prefer to be a wretched lord rather than a happy subject,” wrote Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) of our twisted relationship with God. He continues,
Pride in the mind is a great beam which…blocks the mind’s eye and blots out the light of truth, so that if your mind is full of it you cannot see yourself as you really are. Nor can you see what you might be. You see what you would like to be and think yourself to be, or hope that you will be. For what else is pride, but, as one saint defines it, love of one’s own excellence?
Pride is a perversion of God-given identity–we swim around like a school of spiritual puffer fish, convinced by our own pretending.
Exhibit A: Pride
Pity me, pinned as I am like a moth to cork board. A magnifying glass hovers above me, and even now the label is being neatly printed, Superbia, Latin for Pride.
The evidence against me:
- I compare with an eye to boost my self-image,
- I rush to judgment, pre-judge and even judge the judges,
- I make excuses for my failure and presume my success is my own.
- If I’m praised, “How insightful!” If I’m criticized, “How unkind!”
- And more, but it hurts my pride to tell…
The Pursuit Of Humility
There is hope for me, and for all who hear pride’s whisper: The lovely grace of humility. How do we find her door? Three steps will get us there, as Jesus taught us:
- Sickened of self (repent),
- we strive to be like Christ (hunger for righteousness),
- and find our true identity in self-giving love (for in sharing another’s suffering we learn we are the same).
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the 40 day journey to Easter. What may seem to be a season of deprivation, is actually an invitation to abstain from pride and to feast on God. Please join us, and invite others to come along, for a 14 post series: Lent To Love, beginning this Friday.
Are you fasting during Lent? Have you considered abstaining from one of the Eight Deadly Thoughts?
