Pride

As a youth minister, one of my responsibilities is to find topics to discuss with the teens. Several months ago, I was praying about the upcoming year (which starts in a few short weeks). I prayed about what the Lord wanted me to do with the teens. I prayed over the course of several weeks about it and was not getting a clear idea of where God wanted me to go. At the same time I picked up a couple of books for my own spiritual nourishment. As it turns out I read 2 books back to back about the seven deadly sins and their opposite virtues. I did not intentionally pick out books on this subject...it just happened that way. All of a sudden it dawned on me. God was leading me to discuss the 7 deadly sins with the teens in youth group. Through much prayer and research, I have written a program for my meetings. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will write blog posts on the 7 deadly sins here on my blog. Today, I discuss the first sin....pride.


Pride.

We are all proud in one way or another. So, let me ask....is pride good or is it bad? You will find many people that will tell you that there is nothing wrong with being proud. They will tell you that they are proud of their accomplishments. They will tell you that they are proud of their family. And there is nothing wrong with that. We should be proud of our accomplishments. We should be proud of our family. This pride is good pride. This pride is the reasonable, justified, and balanced sense of joy, respect, and satisfaction in our (or another's) accomplishments and abilities. This pride is not sinful.

Pride is a very sneaky sin. There is a very fine line between good pride and bad pride. Bad pride is the unreasonable, unjustified, and terribly unbalanced sense of joy and satisfaction in our abilities and accomplishments. It fosters a spirit of selfishness, arrogance, restlessness, ingratitude, and an over-inflated sense of worth. This pride is sinful. This is the pride we need to avoid.

With pride, you make everything about you. You attempt to make yourself the center of the universe. Pride oftentimes creeps into your life unnoticed. Before you even realize it you see yourself as better than other people: you're smarter because you had more education, you're more powerful because of your high rank on the job, you're richer because of the size of your house and bank account. The stealthiness of pride works in such a way that before you even realize it you are telling other people how to live their lives and what to do. You say that your intentions are good, that you are just trying to help out the other guy, but deep down inside you puff our your chest because you think you know better than anyone else.

I have never seen myself as a prideful person....until recently. I'm the quiet, reserved guy, that you don't hear much from. I normally keep my mouth shut unless I have something important and pertinent to say. But I, too, have fallen into the trap of pride. I've recognized where I've fallen, and have written about it before in my blog. You can read more about my own struggle with pride here.

The proud person is not a happy person. The proud person is sad because the world does not revolve around him despite his prideful efforts to make it revolve around him. He will never be satisfied because the world will never revolve around him. You may get an immediate sense of satisfaction through a prideful word or action, but that satisfaction will soon fade, leaving you with the desire for more. Pride, at its core, is turning yourself into god. It is saying that you are responsible for your accomplishments, that you are superior to God.

So, how do we counteract pride? With humility. Unfortunately, in our culture humility often brings to mind a preconceived notion of being meek, quiet, timid, and shy--and having an attitude of passiveness and never taking credit for one's own accomplishments. This is not what humility is.

Humility is the recognition and conscious realization that we are creatures, not the Creator; that we are in need of God; and that it is He, and He alone, who has given us life and blessed us with the characteristics that uniquely define you and me. Humility helps us to realize that there is always room for improvement in our life, and that we need God, just as children need their parents.

How do we become humble? Put God first. Put the needs of others ahead of your own needs. And keep your mouth shut when you want to say something prideful. Don't draw attention to yourself, instead praise the accomplishments of others.

Pride will never lead to true happiness, no matter how good it feels to puff out your chest and show off. The humble person has a peace and a joy that cannot be matched. Lord, teach us humility.

I'm Proud....

Pride is a very sneaky sin. It oftentimes creeps into your life unnoticed. Before you even realize it you see yourself as better than other people: you're smarter because you had more education, you're more powerful because of your high rank on the job, you're richer because the size of your house and bank account. The stealthiness of pride works in such a way that before you realize it you are telling other people how to live their lives and what to do. You say that your intentions are good, that you are just trying to help the other guy out, but deep down inside you puff out your chest because you think you know better than anyone else.

I have never seen myself as a prideful person...until recently. I'm the quiet, reserved guy that you don't hear much from. I normally keep my mouth shut unless I have something important and pertinent to say. But I, too, have fallen into the sly trap of pride. I don't see myself as smarter than others. I'm not more powerful, and I'm certainly not richer. The prideful trap I have fallen into is spiritual pride. Yep, I see myself, not necessarily as being holier than others, but knowing more about my faith and how to live it out. It's an easy trap to fall into, so it seems, in the line of work I'm in. I'm a youth minister and my job is teaching the teens about their faith and how to live it out. However, I don't see myself as prideful when I'm with them. Where I see my spiritual pride coming out is when I'm interacting with my adult family and friends. I tell myself that I am reaching out to them, to help them in their journey, but deep down I feel a sense of pride in that I think I know more than they do when it comes to following Christ.

I have become aware of this sin of pride in my life just recently. And now that I am aware of it, I need to form a plan of action with the opposite virtue--humility. I need to open my mouth only when it is a sincere attempt to help another out, and keep it shut when my motivations are to bring attention to myself and my so-called "spiritual wisdom". I need to ask myself, "Is what I am about to say going to give more to the other, or to me?" If what I want to say is going to give more to me, then I need to keep quiet.

Do you struggle with pride? Maybe it's not spiritual pride you struggle with. Maybe you struggle with some other form of pride. It's an easy trap to fall into. Counteract that pride with deliberate humility. Give of yourself with no expectation to receive anything in return. Don't just give until you feel better about yourself, because that leads to pride. Give completely. Give until it hurts. It is only then that we can become humble. For as Peter says in his first letter: "'God opposes the proud but bestows favor on the humble.' So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." (1 Peter 5:5-6)