Growing Through Challenge - Dangerous Pride

                                   POSITIVE FORM

Pride, for lack of a better word, can come in the good form of “Taking pride in yourself enough to try your best and do a good job” (we probably all heard that one from a parent or teacher). Also it is common and positive for parents to take pride in their children, grandchildren, etc.

                                  NEGATIVE FORM

What I am talking about here is something totally different and always harmful, detrimental and negative! If you look up pride in a good dictionary, you will find synonyms such as arrogance, conceit, smugness, self-importance. When a person has any of these kinds of qualities without a sincere counterbalancing sense of humility… that is the damaging force I am addressing.

As I am writing this, it happens to be the week before Easter Sunday (Passion Week) 2008.

Last week saw the forced resignation in disgrace, of a prominent U.S. Governor. As part of my devotional reading this week, I encountered again the sad story of the Last Supper where we find that Jesus’ disciples, after three years of observing His humility-filled life, still having so much pride in themselves that not one of them had developed enough humility to be willing to perform the customary washing of the dusty, sandal-clad feet of his brethren before the meal.

Both back-stories came together in my mind to get me thinking about this subject of PRIDE.

                 THE DISCIPLES DIFFICULT CHALLENGE

Even if you are not a church-going or Bible-reading person, you are probably familiar with the story of the Last Supper before Christ’s crucifixion. Picture the amazement of these twelve men, who had just refused to wash one another’s feet… and who had also engaged in such childish disputes about positions of honor at the table… imagine when they saw their Master arrive in the room and make his way around the unoccupied end of the table, to the lowest seat in the room! There He takes up a towel and water basin to prepare to wash the disciples’ feet! I’m guessing that the lesson they had failed to learn until then, now became one they could never forget!

                         OUR DIFFICULT CHALLENGE

Let me borrow a few words from my “Workbook” section of this website.

Very few people would like to admit to a “self-important” attitude regarding themselves, but we would all agree that it is a distasteful quality when we encounter it in others.

It comes with such subtle insidiousness that it often creeps into the lives of its victims without even their awareness. You have likely seen this “self-important demon” afflict persons from almost every walk and station of life. I have seen it in the wealthy and powerful... I have also seen it in individuals of meager social status, but who have some small bit of authority to wield. Either one is a pitiful sight. Both may do greater damage to themselves than to those they seek to order around, but all are wounded by it.

Guard against this villain! It is a hidden danger lurking to bring great harm to all of your relationships including family, work, and even within your inner self.

                           PERIODICALLY QUESTION
               YOUR ACTIONS, ATTITUDES & MOTIVES

In what ways do I sometimes exhibit a “demanding attitude” toward others in any setting (family, work, social, business establishment, restaurant, church, etc.)?
How important is it to me to have a sense of power over others?

Do I enjoy using that power, perhaps not even considering the other person’s feelings?

MAYBE YOU DON’T EXHIBIT THIS OVERT FORM OF PRIDE…

                                          TRY THESE QUESTIONS

Do you ever find yourself looking down with a smug sense of superiority upon any other human being, instead of trying to support their dignity as a fellow pilgrim on this earthly journey?

Do you often find that “your time” and “your opinions” are more important than those of others?

Do you ever use such superficial things as your house, car, clothing, adornments, to place you in a different social status than others?

If your body is thin, do you look with less dignity upon the obese and wonder how than could get that way?

If you are on the heavy side, do you perhaps have an inner reflexive resentment of thin people?

How many pairs of shoes or other articles of clothing and jewelry has it taken you to feel just as good, or perhaps a little better than others?

If religion plays a big role in your life, do you ever look in disgust at those who seem to have little or none?

If religion plays no role in your life, do you find it hard to tolerate the religious for their “lack of progressive knowledge” or their need for an “emotional crutch”?

I could continue this dreary list, but can you at least see how easily DAMAGING PRIDE can find some entrance into all of our lives?

        DON’T LET PRIDE DAMAGE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

“When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a pretty small package.” ___John Ruskin

“Egotism: the art of seeing in yourself what others cannot see.” ___George Higgins

“Let another man praise thee, and not your own mouth.” ___Proverbs 27:2

“The problem is that either domination or dependence demands so much less of us than collaboration.” ___Joan D. Chittister

“The graveyards are full of indispensable men.” ___Charles De Gaulle

“He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.” ___Benjamin Franklin

“The Lord sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves.” ___Dwight L. Moody

“There are limits to self-indulgence, none to self-restraint.” ___Gandhi

“How far you go in life depends on your being...
     Tender with the young,
     Compassionate with the aged,
     Sympathetic with the striving, and
     Tolerant of the weak and the strong.
...because someday in life, you will have been all of these.”   ___George Washington Carver