When people struggle there is an answer.

When people struggle there is an answer.

What is the most annoying circumstance that confronts humanity?  Where can we go to change the obvious obtrusiveness that seems to be our inheritance?   How can we climb out of this trench that appears to have a hold on our ability to straighten up?  Questions that always stick close to our desire for answers that somehow seem to allude to us.

It is not a quiz that promises a reward at the end of a show, but it does preclude an expectant hoorah when the secret is exposed and our path to victory has overcome the darkness that follows our every step.  Somehow we await a champion to walk in with a sword drawn and with one giant swing chop off the heads of these enemies without a second thought.

Just what are these scourges that humans carry around?  The first is the mother of all sin; pride.  From what weakness did this evil intention derive?   

C.S.Lewis wrote, “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.”  (Taken from Mere Christianity).

What does Proverbs say about pride?  “When pride comes, disgrace comes: but with the humble is wisdom.”  (Prv 11: 2).  “The stupid man sows discord by his insolence, but with those who take counsel is wisdom.”  (Prv 13: 10).  “Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord; I assure you that he will not go unpunished.”  (Prv 16: 5).  “Haughty eyes and a proud heart - the tillage of the wicked is sin.”  (Prv 21: 4).

There are six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to him;  Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood; A heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil, The false witnesses who utter lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.”  (Prv 6: 16 - 19).  

Coming out of a trance as waking up with the veil of ignominy or shame hanging over us, we can reach into the mist of pride and feel the results that it has brought upon us.  Satan can look at what his pride lost his place with all the other angels and await his eternal destination in Hell.  To those among our species who do not turn away from this moist evil before God will have the same outlook.  

Of all the sins that God will forgive us, pride is the one that he may not overlook.  Believing that God will not or cannot forgive is the unforgivable sin.  That is the essence of pride.

Seek the grace to eliminate pride from your repertoire.  For if you do not, the result  may become the only thing you’ll have with you to look at in eternity.

Ralph B. Hathaway