Pride

Pride is my Achilles heel. In school my marks were always high. The other kids made fun of me if I got less than 100% on pop quizzes. When I went to Bible college later in life, my GPA was the highest in the school. People tell me I am smart. Because of all this, I suppose that I must be, even have to be. Whenever I make a mistake, my first words to myself are usually, “Oh, are you ever a dummy” or something like that.

Everyone knows that pride goes before a fall. I should fall a lot more than I do. I need lots of reminding about humility. Today, God repeats yesterday’s verse to me with an emphasis on the last phrase. In the New King James version, the verse says,

Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. (Romans 12:16)

I decided to look this up in several other versions. This is what I found:

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. . . . Never be conceited. . . . Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody. . . . And don’t think you know it all!

I know that I don’t know it all; that isn’t my problem. The problem is that I want to, that I think I should know everything. I think I should win every game of Trivial Pursuit, every Bible quiz, and outguess all the contestants on Jeopardy. That is pride.

These verses say the cure is associating with the humble, or with people of low position. This context points to the pride of position. Walking with those who have little status is helpful in reminding those with status that life is not about position.

For me, the people who show me that life is not about being smart are not those who are foolish or mentally challenged, but those who are wise, those who fear God and have the Holy Spirit guiding them in all areas and activities. Being wise is not about knowing things. It is about knowing God and knowing how to rely on Him for everything.

It also is about being thrown into situations where I don’t know the answers and am pushed to prayer and relying on God and others to take me through whatever difficulty I am in. It is about being lost and having to ask directions, about being unsure and having to move with uncertainty.

Humility is also being willing to experience the feelings of helplessness that ought to drive me to verses like 2 Corinthians 12:9 where God says to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” and where I have to learn to “gladly rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Again, I have much to learn, and perhaps the reason it takes me so long to learn it is because I proudly think that I must.