Pride? Are You SERIOUS?

1/7/1999

Just to look at human life rationally, let alone Spiritually, pride is a ridiculous thing, isn’t it? : )

“I’ve spoken to crowds of multiplied thousands!” Yea? You’ve pushed guttural and nasal sounds through an opened and closed mouth, while spitting and inhaling? Congratulations. And you’ve done all of this in front of a plot of ground saturated with sedentary “ugly bags of mostly water”? This is good. You should be very happy.

“I’ve invented ____!” Hooray. And it’ll be obsolete before you ever spend your money designing packaging and negotiating distribution. But at least you feel good about yourself this week. That’s important. And MAYBE someday you can acquire piles of negotiable documents that will allow you to spend more time interacting with meaningless inanimate objects—and even travel to various rearrangements of dirt and rock and water, miles and miles away from your dirt and rocks! That would be good.

“I’m the boss of hundreds!” Sure. Make ONE person angry (the wrong one, and this is out of your control) and it’s all gone. One slip on the sidewalk or a germ off of a doorknob, and for the rest of your life, you will beg someone making minimum wage to change your bedpan. Happens all the time. Your title and 50 cents might get you a cup of coffee.

“I’m a great musician, and I’m real smart too!” YOU can use your fingernails to scrape nylon strings REAL FAST—and in the right order most of the time? I can’t believe it. That’s amazing. And on a good day you can actually think of stuff that only 100,000 other “ugly bags of mostly water” can think of? Okay! Would you take a stick with colored liquid in it and scratch out some squiggly symbol that means I’ve gotten near your ugly bag of mostly water? Please? It would mean a lot to me.

“I’m beautiful! Look at me!” Oh, okay! Yes. Amazing protrusion of cartilage off the front of your skull. You’re RIGHT! No question that your fatty deposits are in slightly different places and shapes than those of some other ugly bags of mostly water. And there might not be but 1 or 2 million others that have better eye balls, superior skull and skeletal shapes, and higher quality lips than you. Although you still can’t lift a tree, you have an extra 10 pounds of muscle tissue that your neighbor DOESN’T HAVE! And your wardrobe? You drape some VERY special cloth over yourself, all cut and colored JUST RIGHT. Your stringy dead protein cells that push out of the top of your head are the absolute best. No denying it. You are RIGHT up there. And, since you’re so smart and talented too, and you are so good at running on the hamster wheel and pushing salt water out of the little holes in your flesh suit, you’ll probably be able to make your skin fit a few more months than most. Yippee. Everyone will surely notice. And care a lot.

Thus says the LORD:

“Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this: that they understand and know Me, that I am the LORD; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight,” says the LORD.

“And here is My Son, Jesus, Whom I have chosen, the One I love, in Whom I delight; I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear His voice shouting in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out, till He leads justice to victory. In His Name the nations will put their hope.”

All authority, all beauty, all meaning, all Life that is TRULY Life... are wrapped up in the sparkling eyes, the delightful voice, and the warmly penetrating wisdom of... JESUS, the Son of GOD—the Deliverer from sin and darkness! Fall on your knees and WORSHIP HIM! Don’t be afraid... you can do it now, no matter WHAT mere humans might think!!