Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.

• Leviticus 26:19

Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens
    and his head touches the clouds,
he will perish forever, like his own dung;
    those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found,
    banished like a vision of the night.
The eye that saw him will not see him again;
    his place will look on him no more.
His children must make amends to the poor;
    his own hands must give back his wealth.
The youthful vigor that fills his bones
    will lie with him in the dust.

• Job 20:6-11

In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.

• Psalm 10:4

Pridegoes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

• Proverbs 16:18

“Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.

• C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

I have written about how my mother would say that she was proud of her humility.  I don’t know if my pride could even go that far, that is if her comment even made sense.

I spent my early years being stuffed with the idea that I was a sinner.  I had no good quality whatsoever, that is from some people who I trusted and honored.

I was always proud of my accomplishments.  This is not what the Scriptures above are saying.  We should strive to do our best.  We should strive to glorify God in everything that we do.  But I was always reminded whenever I accomplished anything in life that my best was never perfect, and perfect was always the expectation – for me, while the charmed brother, classmate, whatever, could throw something horrid together and it was suddenly golden.  As I mention a lot, comparison is a deadly sin.  Having favorites might be a deadly sin also.

I always had problems in job interviews.  I knew I could outperform most other candidates.  If I was not the smartest, I would make up for it by working hard.  But my introverted temperament led to insecurity in puffing out my chest at an interview.  That amount in indecision while answering the interviewer’s questions might raise a red flag.  After all, if the candidate does not have unmitigated confidence that he is the best that ever existed, why hire him and watch him fail?

But pride?  Psalm 10 says it all.  The proud person has no place for God. But if they see advantage in saying they believe in God, they will make that claim to gain acceptance. Thinking that if there really is a God, He would have to love them since they are so wonderful.

And the passage from Job is probably where the saying that someone thinks that his excrement (other word used) does not stink.  That line about how the proud will perish like their own dung…

I am pleased with a lot of what I write, but six months later, I can read it through and find spelling errors or typos.  I am not perfect, but God is.  God continues to whittle away little imperfections.  And when I get to the other side, God will have made me perfect.  For I had nothing to do with it other than the desire to be more like Jesus.  Where can pride exist in that desire – to be more like someone else by allowing that Someone to fix what you cannot?

No, C.S. Lewis is right.  Pride is a spiritual cancer, for you think yourself better than you really are.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.