Faith Venture

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” – St. Augustine

Take a trip through the book of Proverbs and see what God thinks of prideful people. And to what happens to them in the end.

Pride is the ancestor of all bad habits and actions.

Pride prevents us from achieving great things; for just as he is about to realize the completeness of his leadership, the prideful man and woman will be brought down in humiliation.

Pride erects a barrier that prevents personal relationships deeper than appearances.

Pride leads us down the road of bad decisions.

To be humble does not mean to be weak.

The humble person filled with God’s spirit, acknowledges their place in the universe. They lead not from arrogance but from wisdom. Wisdom comes from learning from past mistakes. Pride blinds us to our mistakes.

I searched the scriptures for examples. It’s not easy for they are filled with stories of flawed people.

King David’s story reveals a man who would move within the tension of being prideful and being humble. When he was humble and did things for God, he was powerful. When his pride got in the way, he got into trouble.

Look at Peter in the New Testament. He had to endure his personal crises to lose his pride and become a strong leader.

It is not easy to overcome pride. Just as in the 12-step programs, the first step is to stop and recognize our pride. Every day as we develop the spiritual disciplines of study and prayer and meditation we must remind ourselves of where pride has slyly insinuated itself into our lives.

It is only through prayer that we can get past our pride. God help us in our overcoming of pride before we also have a great fall.

“In the beginning, when God created the world… And God said…”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Nothing came into being without him, and without him nothing came into being. And what came into being with him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

It is instructive and interesting to compare the opening of Genesis and the opening of the Gospel of John. John is actually much more poetic–at least in the English translation.

Because John used the Greek Logos (word) which had deep meaning in Greek philosophy, and because John often calls the opposition “The Jews”, a generation of scholars taught that John was not a Jewish book, but rather a Greek and anti-Semitic book. I have come to realize that they perhaps let their cultural influences capture too much of their thinking.

According to the Hebrew creation account, when God created, he said. And what was the very beginning of creation? Staring at nothingness, God began by separating light from dark (not day and night, that comes later). And what does John use as his metaphor for the entire Gospel–the separation of light and dark.

Our response needs to be to look for the light. And let the light of God shine into the dark places of our lives so that we may live in the light and not the darkness.

And what does that mean in daily life? I’d go look at Paul, and his lists such as fruit of the spirit, or the last five chapters of Romans. Paul makes this all practical.

And then we go screwing it up, because we let darkness block out the light. We need to live oriented toward the light–like a sunflower.

I saw the light, I saw the light

No more darkness, no more night

Now I’m so happy, no sorrow in sight

Praise the Lord, I saw the light

Bible Study magazine runs an interview every issue. There have been some really good ones with people from all over the globe. The latest issue features a professor from Hong Kong.

His focus is on building bridges between the “old guys”–church leadership–and young people.

It seems that the younger generation just doesn’t accept teaching from pastors or other older teachers unquestionably. They like to express their thoughts. They like to question things. They are also the first generation in 150 years not brought up under British rule. They are also questioning the Chinese authorities.

He, quite naturally, thinks this is unique.

People said that about my generation, too. That was the 60s. Remember those days? (If you say yes, you weren’t there, so the joke goes.)

Writers from Western Europe and America going back perhaps 200 years  or more also seemed to reflect this questioning of authority before becoming the authority.

Think Luther. Or Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and their friends.

I like to reckon that large companies (IBM was famous for this) only hire A students. Why? They are trainable. They are quick to learn new facts and give the facts back.

We poor B students–we were always questioning, looking for a better way, wanting to go our own way. We didn’t get hired by IBM into nice jobs with big salaries. We kept trying to change the world.

(That analysis, by the way, is obviously a crude generalization. But think about it for a minute. Where do you fit?)

So, I applaud those young people in Hong Kong who want to hold their elders accountable–both secular and religious. And I applaud people like this professor who tries to build bridges. Listen to younger people. But then push back on them to force them to think through first opinions and mature as thinkers.

It tells me there is hope for the future of Hong Kong. What is this like in your community and your church? Do you freeze out young people because they ask questions, or do you welcome their questions and meet them honestly?

Do as I say, not as I do.

I’m not sure where I first heard that phrase. Maybe it was a teacher in my high school who taught such things as etiquette who was eating like a slob in the cafeteria.

When I was in college, I often heard students in the Education Department talking about how they didn’t want to be role models. They would just impart “knowledge” intellectually divorced from personality and behaviour. These would have been among the first Baby Boomers–the “Me Generation.”

Unfortunately, they were role models. You cannot escape it.

I was shocked and dismayed by the phrase when I first heard it; and the phrase still makes me sick to the stomach.

That saying also reminds me of the vocal element of American Christianity. They delight in pointing out to others how they should be living. Sort of modern Pharisees. Clean on the outside and dirty on the inside as Jesus pointed out once.

The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.

Are you a parent? Ever notice how your kids pick up on your bad habits rather than listening to your good advice.

Worse, ever catch yourself doing something that you really disliked when your parents did it?

Picture a protestor who doesn’t like whatever cause the marchers represent. He has speakers on his hat, an amplifier on his back, and a microphone. “JESUS LOVES YOU,” he shouts.

What is the message? Jesus loves them? Or, I hate you and all you stand for?

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament talks about being surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Sometimes I am quite embarrassed.

How about you?