Pride and Where I Find It...

When I was in college, I had a teacher who used to say about pride, “The question we should have is not ‘is there pride in my life?’ but ‘where is it, and how much?’”, then we should seek to rid ourselves of it no matter what it costs us. If I apply that to myself, where do I find pride, the simple answer is everywhere. I find it when I spend too long getting ready in the morning. I find it when I can’t wear something that I don’t think looks fabulous because I have to be seen by other people. I find it every time I am lazy, every time I am less than gracious. It’s a constant stream of me, me, me, me, me, me, and me. It’s a monster!

So what to do about it? It’s not like it was when we were little kids, where you close/cover your eyes in hopes that whatever you don’t like will go away. You cannot escape the reality of sin. Simply covering up your pride issue with some added niceness is like trying to apply cosmetics to an outbreak of poison oak, to cover it up. Unless it is treated properly like the disease that it is, it will spread.

The only antidote strong enough for the poisons we produce is the Bible, the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12 states,

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Time to increase our exposure, I should think. The word “piercing” is what gets me; it reminds me there is no way of hiding anything. It reminds me of dark mornings during my childhood, when my sister would get up and turn on the main light in our bedroom. Talk about piercing!

Consider also Psalm 119:11,

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Looks like the writer of Psalm 119 caught onto something. If God shows you that pride is everywhere in your life, go after it, and show it no mercy. Don’t help it hide. If the Word of God is so important to our spiritual health, what else is there to do? Let’s up our intake, and strive to be rid of this monster of self, no matter what it costs us. The only reason we wouldn't is because of our own pridefulness, and that's the whole point, now, isn't it?