(reprinted from old blog)
I’ve considered writing about pride for several months now but have put it off for various reasons, the main one being pride itself. You see if I write about pride then it is assumed that I consider myself to be knowledgeable on the subject, which I considered to be prideful as I am only 24 years old. I do not want to come across as being proud so I considered the tactic that I have seen used by other authors. The tactic being, to initially debase myself so as to not appear prideful, then proceed to write as if I were an authority on the subject.
For example… There are many more qualified people than me, I am a sinner myself, I hope that one person will find this helpful, woe is me, etc.
Which the more I learned about pride the more I realized that this self deprecation is a form of pride not it’s antithesis.
So without further ado here are my thoughts on pride, they come from my own experience and knowledge.
I once heard a quote by G.K. Chesterton but I can’t find it so I am forced to paraphrase without his wit and wisdom. “Humility is not a beautiful woman proclaiming to be ugly”
I thought that that was a most wonderful statement. In my dealings with the fairer sex I have on occasion complemented the beauty of a lady. The common reply is a denial of my proclamation. I do not go away thinking her humble, instead I chalk it up to low self esteem or to a feminine communication tradition of self deprecation (a la Deborah Tannen) but not to humbleness.
Here is how I define Pride:
Pride is the state of focusing on ones self. Within the category of pride are, arrogance and false humility. Arrogance is a form of pride that places all others lower than you. False Humility is a form of pride that places everyone else higher than you.
If that is pride then humbleness would be it’s opposite.
Humbleness is focusing not on ones self. The two things you could focus on then would be, God and other people.
Here is how my thought process works:
God is humble. God loves all people. To be humble I must be like God and love all people, starting with and including myself. Loving everyone is equality; if I don’t love someone then I place them beneath myself, which is arrogance. If I don’t love myself then I am placing myself beneath other people, which is false humility. If do not love others or myself then I deny God’s love and lead a pathetic existence.
As Kris Vallotton said in his book “The Supernatural Ways Of Royalty”
“Humility isn’t thinking less of ourselves but thinking of ourselves less.”
Let’s look at King Nebuchadnezzar and see if his story matches up with my stream of consciousness argument.
“All of these things came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months King Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of his royal place which is in Babylon. And he spoke and said, ‘Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the sear of my kingdom and for my great dominion and my majesty?’”
-Dan 4:29-30
Shortly thereafter God blasted him and made him crawl on his hands and knees eating grass for quite a while. Eventually he learned his lesson and this is what he said:
“At the same time my sense returned to me, and my princes and my generals sought me’ and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me.”
Saying that excellent majesty was added to me sounds a bit prideful don’t you think? But looking at his proclaimed accomplishments he never claims to be the creator, he uses the words, “established” and “added to me” which acknowledge the things that are there but point to someone else as the creator. Neb goes on to say,
“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are true and his ways just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”
-Dan 4:36-37
Neb was humbled by being brought low, but after that he was raised up and became ruler of a kingdom that had more majesty than the first. With all that majesty he was humble, not because he belittled himself but because he proclaimed God as the creator and sustainer of his life, with all he had coming from God.
From all this I have learned that to be humble, I must focus on others and if I am focused on myself, and see myself as greater or less than others, then that is pride. I also learned that I should acknowledge the things God has done in my life, the places he has lead me and the things I have done as a result.
God has given us each talents and when he returns he will ask us what we have done with them. I want to tell him all the great things I have done. That is not pride; it is acknowledging that God has given me gifts believing that I can use them.
Gloria in Excelsis Deo!
A work in progress,
-ethan
