Spiritual Cancer

When the Cornerstone Bank in Waco, Nebraska, was robbed of some $6,000 in November of 2012, the bank employees were able to give the police a fairly good description of the teenage girl who pulled off the crime and the car in which she escaped.  As it turned out, the investigators didn't really need those descriptions, because the thief recorded a YouTube video titled "Chick bank robber" boasting of her criminal prowess.

Fanning out the cash in front of the camera, 19-year-old Hannah Sabata held up a sign that read, "I just stole a car and robbed a bank.  Now I'm rich, I can pay off my college financial aid, and tomorrow I'm going for a shopping spree."  Later she held up another sign which said, "I told my mom today was the best day of my life...she just thinks I met a new boy."

Hannah's brief criminal career ended later that week when police took her into custody.

Just like Hannah's immodest boasting quickly caught up with her, we are warned against the dangers of what many Christian and religious teachers agree is the utmost evil:  pride.

I've opened up a big ol' can of worms, haven't I?  Condescension.  Superiority.  Snobbery.  Imperiousness.  Overbearingness.  Haughtiness.  All synonyms of arrogance and pride.

I think we're all familiar with the knowledge that by delighting in ourselves and our accomplishments, rather than taking pride in the fact that we were able to please someone or God and leaving it at the fact that all is well, is where we can fall into the trait of becoming condescending, in turn becoming unreasonably arrogant and prideful.  And if we fall to the point of not caring what others value or think of us because their opinions or ideas are of no consequence to us, then we have reached the epitome of the worst pride.

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity,

The real black, diabolical Pride comes when you look down on others so much that you do not care what they think of you.  Of course, it is very right, and often our duty, not to care what people think of us, if we do so for the right reason; namely, because we care so incomparably more what God thinks.  But the Proud man has a different reason for not caring.  He says "Why should I care for the applause of that rabble as if their opinion were of value, am I the sort of man to blush with pleasure at a compliment like a young girl at her first dance?  No, I am an integrated, adult personality.  All I have done has been done to satisfy my own ideals - or my artistic conscience - or the traditions of my family - or, in a word, because I'm That Kind of Chap.  If the mob like it, let them.  They're nothing to me."  In this way really thoroughgoing Pride may act as a check on vanity; for, as I said a moment ago, the devil loves "curing" a small fault by giving you a great one.

I believe it is an easy trap for us to fall into as humans.  It's our nature to be proud of our accomplishments, of who we are, where we come from and to boast of such things.  It is not as easy to have humility and meekness.  One of the biggest ways we can start to accomplish this, though, is to stop talking and start listening.  I've always heard that God gave us one mouth and two ears for a reason.  To talk less and listen more.  A trait of a sincerely humble person is one that is genuinely interested in what you said to him, not in telling you how his way is the right way or the only way.  Generally, these are cheerful, intelligent folks who are able to easily enjoy life and I believe the reason is because they are not thinking of themselves.  There is no perfection trying to be achieved.  They know perfection on earth is impossible; we can only better ourselves as we work toward our life's main goal of Christ.  As Leo Tolstoy once wrote, "An arrogant person considers himself perfect.  It interferes with a person's main task in life -- becoming a better person."

In Muhammad Ali's heyday as the heavy weight champion in boxing, he had taken his seat on a 747 which was starting to taxi down the runway for take off.  The flight attendant walked by and noticed Ali did not have on his seatbelt and said, "Please fasten your seatbelt, sir."
He looked up proudly and snapped, "Superman don't need no seatbelt."
Without hesitation she stared at him and said, "Superman don't need no plane."


"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."  Proverbs 16:18