At a youth soccer game several years ago, I had the pleasure
of seeing one of my grandsons score two goals. He was not as big in size
as some of the boys, but he was high in energy and used his head on the
field. I was very proud of him.
On the way home, we were talking. I praised him for
his soccer performance that afternoon, and then I felt the need to add an
editorial about always trying to do one's best --- to take pride and pleasure
in stretching our capabilities through practice and hard work. I told him
it made me proud of him, as I watched him grow into a superior athlete.
I shared those feelings freely, and he seemed to appreciate
the praise. I also wanted him to recognize that he has coordination and
strength, and he must decide whether it is not too soon to train himself to
employ those gifts well. Then, I said, he would someday be proud that he
had pushed himself in a direction that others would praise, but that best of
all would be the self-satisfaction of overcoming many challenges and times of
discouragement, to finally feel he was fulfilling his promise.
Later, I realized I had been urging him to take PRIDE in the
development of his God-given gifts. Then I recalled that the Bible
seems to have nothing but negative things to say about PRIDE. In fact,
sometimes PRIDE is called the "seventh sin." So, if the Bible
has a "black-and-white" view of PRIDE ---- pretty much black, is
there no middle ground?
It seems to me that PRIDE-under-control might have some net
value.
Apparently people get into difficulty with their PRIDE if it
becomes an inflated sense of their status or accomplishments. In
other words, as St. Augustine put it: "the love of one's own
excellence." Thus, the opposite of PRIDE would be either humility or
guilt. If we have a "healthy" sense of PRIDE, perhaps it rests
somewhere between humility and the love of our own excellence.
The Bible says God has made us capable of achievement, but
that there is an attitude that arises naturally with achievement "that is
not of the Father, but of the world." To have victory over PRIDE,
therefore, is to excel and achieve without giving a place to this sinful
worldly attitude. In this way, suggests the Bible, it is similar to our
being a STEWARD over the gifts of God. It is not the acquisition of
success, the Bible seems to suggest ---- it is our mental attitude that
counts. Rather than merely the attainment of success itself, it is the
attitude of our heart toward the acquisition that matters. Thus we avoid
the PRIDE of secular life and live in humble reliance upon God.
If we were to abandon some of our PRIDE as being too much of
a good thing, would we lose too much of the emotion that can facilitate our
attaining greater success in the use of the gifts given by God? After
all, PRIDE is an emotion that can help trigger and sustain focused effort to
make the best use of our gifts from God. By suppressing PRIDE, wouldn't
we lose the pleasant, sometimes exhilarating emotion that energizes us
positively in meeting personal goals?
The awful irony is that the very vigor with which we supress
PRIDE in ourselves will induce a hidden PRIDE in that very effort. Will
we not be proud of our attempts to get rid of PRIDE? Is it possible to
fully escape the "PRIDE of life"?
______________________________________________________________________
These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult
Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage some spiritual growth for you
this fall.
______________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment