The 7 Deadly Sins: Pride

I haven't thought much about the 7 deadly sins (or cardinal sins, as we learned them) since Catholic school... oh, and that movie with Brad Pitt... Kevin Spacey was sooooo evil! But yesterday I was realizing how many people still get caught up in them (ok, myself included), and just how deadly they truly are.


So, of course, I decided to blog about them -- one at a time -- so I don't have to think up things to blog about for at least the next week or so.


You'd think just the name "deadly sins" would be enough to scare people into paying attention to them, but then again these days people scoff at even the idea that "sin" exists. Talk about scary...

Anyway, let's start with pride. This one's a doozy. When I think about it, I realize I have so many friends, family members, and acquaintances who are totally getting their butts kicked by pride. And I don't mean to sound like I'm sitting back, shaking my head, saying "Tsk, tsk, when will they learn?" I recognize I have my own issues with pride as well. It's just a fact: pride was the first sin ever committed when Lucifer decided he deserved more glory and adoration than he was getting for the job he was doing. So it's only natural that here on earth Satan repeatedly tries to trip us up with that same sin. If you're not constantly guarding your heart and mind by filling yourself with the Word of God, pride will get in, along with the other deadly sins, and wreak havoc.


So what is pride exactly? I think pride is ultimately saying, "I'll make the rules." It's a delusion that makes you think you can handle more power than you're capable of handling. You see something you want, then convince yourself you deserve it even though you've done nothing to qualify yourself for it. You get puffed up and try to take it by force, then get angry and frustrated when you lose it. And God forbid anyone try to help you by telling you what you might be doing wrong! How dare they be so judgmental and smug! Just for that you're going to do what you KNOW is 100% wrong for the rest of your life just to spite them! Ha, that'll teach them!


Um, yeah, ok... good luck with that.


But we all do it to some extent. Even me. The cure for pride is humility. Humility recognizes that you almost never get to make the rules, and is relieved about that, because making the rules is an enormous responsibility. Humility handles power carefully and reverently, knowing you're never qualified to handle it on your own, and never wanting to even if you could. Humility is playing your part with a grateful heart. Yet it's not self-conscious or self-deprecating -- it's entirely self-less. It requires boldness, because all of us are called to do something great -- as they say in show biz, there are no small parts!

So today I'm asking Yahweh to give me more humility and to remove pride from me, as far as the east is from the west. I want to do my part, giving 100% of my effort at all times, walking in love and never looking around to judge whether others are doing their parts, or wishing I could trade parts. I love Yahweh and the system He has created and the people He has placed in my life to help me. Thank you, Yahweh, for every good and perfect gift you've given me! You are awesome!

Now as my pastor would say, let's review: Pride... Baaaaaaaaaad; Humility.... Gooooood. It's not hard. Which one will you choose today?