Pride

Today I was walking across campus and someone greeted me in passing. I returned the greeting but with no genuine interest because I had other things on my mind. On this very same trek I passed someone who was carrying some things, I don’t know if this person needed help or not, but I didn’t even offer.

Upon returning to my office these two incidents hit me concerning a lot of thoughts I have had over the last few months relating to pride and selfishness. A subject I think about a lot and not enough all at once. It seems when I am alone contemplating life I see it so prevalent in all my actions. But the very next encounter I have with another human I forget all these moments of meditation and exhibit more of the selfish acts I hate.

At the 2007 Shepherd’s Conference C.J. Mahaney spoke on the perils of pride. Within his sermon he said everything he was about to say had been said before in books he had read. Well sure enough earlier this week I was reading Mere Christianity and came across a chapter on pride which is most likely one of the many sources Mahaney echoed. Lewis says that "Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind." (Lewis, 94). Lewis continues on in this chapter to explain how happy the devil would be to see you become "chaste, and brave, and self-controlled provided, all the time, he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of pride" (Lewis, 97). He explains that it can even come to the point where you don’t commit certain other sins because you are so proud it’s beneath your dignity. Or if you spend your life serving others simply because it makes you feel proud it’s worthless. I would encourage anyone thinking on this subject to read Mahaney’s sermon from Challies blog, as well as this chapter of Mere Christianity. Both of these messages really brought things into a new and ever convicting light for me.

1 Peter 5:5 “You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” (NASB)