The Thing you Can’t Say…
Sep 19th, 2008 by ljkim
The one thing that’s hurting everyone, making people miserable, leading them to poor decisions and sapping the joy out of their lives is the one thing you’re not allowed to point out to anyone… That is: Pride. Pride is the anti-Gospel. Pride is the virus that lives in each one of us – and whenever one person has an inflammation of it, everyone around them usually starts breaking out in it also. What happens when there is a pompous snob at a party? Some people work hard to gain his approval, while others reverse the snobbery and say, “who does he think he is?”
I call this the anti-Gospel. Whereas God’s kindness leads people to see all that they do not deserve, pride makes a willful assertion that we deserve all that and more. Whereas the Gospel says we are sinners who’ve received mercy and a gift – pride quietly seeks to assert our superiority (or at least a high level of equality) with others. And it’s making us miserable. It makes us work hard to impress. It keeps real friendship and any experience of mercy at a distance.
So what can we do about this pride virus? You can never point it out or talk about it directly. But you can apply the Gospel to your own pride, humbling it and casting it away – the more people act proud, the more you humble yourself to make sure you don’t break out in it too…then hope that your Gospel cleansed attitude will show enough to put others at ease, and catch… like a cure that spreads instead of a virus.
PS – This is another one of those posts that have nothing whatsoever to do with the picture – this is us recovering from our long commute to Napa this week. Although I can’t be entirely sure, I think the topic of next Sunday’s message has to do with pride – so that’s the occasion for this post. This Sunday’s message (from Pastor Steve) has to do with Prayer – so I hope you won’t miss it!
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