We’ve got troubles, friends and I’m not talking River City.
Today’s soapbox soliloquy deals with that noxious weed which crops up in every heart:
Pride.
Now Christians, those who have been at this for a few decades, have an instant mental gut
reaction to that word: “I’m okay, Doug is talking about someone else, maybe himself.”
No and yes. No, you’re probably not okay, and yes, I include myself in this, as I also have
problems with pride. That doesn’t negate what I’m about to write.
I see Christians struggling with Pride, and I’m going to use a word (again) that I’ve noted before:
‘canalized’. As in making canals-our minds and egos work along certain paths which, the longer they are trod, become canals, the only ways that we CAN think-call it 'accepted' knowledge.
Thinking outside the box is a poor metaphor-better to say “Have courage to climb up out of your canals
And look at things from a different perspective.”
Here’s the Pride thing. Part of what we take pride in is our knowledge, what we have learned since that Doctor slapped us as babies.
If we had learned everything perfectly, fine and good. But perfect knowledge is impossible for us, and
If our thought canals run deep, accepted knowledge can be faulty (and I mean faulty!) but hard to give up, as we hate to admit
That we are wrong (pride), are afraid to be seen as lacking (pride) and will run all the faster and harder through our canals to prove that we are right (did you guess? PRIDE).
“I preached a GREAT SERMON on humility, had them crying in the pews. Best sermon I ever gave!
My Scripture verse was ‘Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.’ They sure needed to hear it!”
See a problem there, friends? Before I get accused of having a log in my own eye (a Scriptural but human, prideful riposte to one’s Pride being attacked), I’m also Prideful, and God often humbles me, too.
This post isn’t about shooting fiery darts at my brethren, it’s about holding up a mirror and saying, “Do a Pride check-your mind may be so canalized that you
Think that you are doing well, when actually Pride is blinding you to the fact that you need
Humbling.
And God WILL humble. He humbles arrogant pagans and willful, prideful Christians alike.
Christians are humbled for their own betterment; everyone else is humbled for the betterment of us all.
Am I immune to canalized thought paths? Not by your Mothers doughnuts! But I recognize that fact, and I work to see things from different perspectives, climb out of my own (comfortable but deep) canals.
God continues to humble me as I need. This isn’t a case of a sinful sniper joyfully pointing out faults in others-it’s a call for all of us to take a dose of that foul-tasting medicine-humility-and get better.
God won’t lift us up if we think we are already flying high.
1 comment:
Jah sure, I might get in a bit of the hot h20 for this post, but it needed to be written.
I was going to go in a different direction, but sometimes these posts travel where they will.
Oh well-since I'm already soaking in the hot up to my neck, I might as well take the plunge-
Suits.
If you have to wear a suit on Sunday morning or it just won't be church...you might have a pride problem.
"I'm simply being respectful to God by dressing up for church!"
Respecting God or gathering respect for yourself?
I often wear jeans-black jeans, but still-jeans to church because it isn't about what we wear, but how we approach worship and fellowship.
There are millions of pagan churches such as Catholic and Lutheran (Catheran? Lutheric? Hard to tell these days) which are full of well dressed pagans bound for hell. Some of their ministers wear vestments and costumes which denote how Spiritual they are supposed to be.
If you dress in a nice suit for Sunday morning church because that is what you have done your entire life, that is the only RIGHT way...canalized thought, friend. You can't imagine any other way of dressing because you KNOW that that is right for you.
I grew up poor and still am. I have plenty of other prideful things which I deal with imperfectly, but dressing for church isn't one of them.
Besides, I think I'm in the majority-since Acts chapter two there have been millions more poor, ill-dressed Christians than there have been snappy dressers.
I approach God in worship in simple clothes, and I don't think He minds. There's no special honor in this-I don't score more humble points because I don't wear a suit-but when we all come together to worship God, it isn't supposed to be about us anyway.
Hey! Good news about being in over my head in the hot water-the log in my own eye just floated away!
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