The Power of Pride

So, I'm not sure if this is going to become a habit or not, but it seems as if my post ideas are stemming from situations that I find myself in on Monday nights. This is an interesting development indeed, but I suppose I will take what I have and make something out of it.

I was driving out to my young adults group last night, and about ten minutes into the trip I found myself behind a truck for a brief moment which had the following bumper sticker affixed to it:

The Power of Pride. This sticker is clearly conveying a sense of pride in our great nation and the power of having such pride. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, it does bring up a rather interesting matter. No, I am not about to bash the USA or tell you that being proud of your country is a terrible thing (truth be told, I feel quite blessed to live in the USA and do my best not to take what I have as a result of living here for granted). What I would like to bring to the table is geared more towards the essence of pride in and of itself. Actually, I probably will not mention the USA much, if at all, for the remainder of this post; the bumper sticker just happened to trigger a posting obligation within me.

Pride is something that affects us all. In fact, it would be fair to say that pride itself is the root of many of the wrongs that we commit in this life. C.S. Lewis writes on the very matter in his essay, The Great Sin, which can be found within his work called Mere Christianity. I would strongly encourage you to read this essay; it should only take you five to ten minutes and I personally guarantee that it will be well worth your time.

Pride, as Lewis puts it, "is essentially competitive. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man." The source of much conflict in this world, past and present, can easily be traced back to pride and the unhealthy desire to simply be better at something for the sake of being better. Take a moment to reflect on your own life right now: are you pursuing something just so that you can place yourself higher on the chart when compared to your peers?

Now I should mention (as Lewis also does) that pride in the sense of finding pleasure in being praised or being "proud of" someone is not the evil Pride.  Taking delight in being recognized for something is not a bad thing until you begin to place yourself upon a pedestal and begin to have thoughts along the lines of "What a great person I must be to have done _____." Being proud of someone is, perhaps, better expressed as having admiration or regard for someone because of something they have done. As long as one does not go so far as to sinfully idolize the person of admiration, the problem of Pride will not be an issue.

Ultimately, we must be wary of Pride in our lives and how we let it affect us. It can create animosity between people as well as between people and God. As I said a moment ago, think about your life and how you may be letting Pride take the wheel. Perhaps you think you are not prideful: I beg to differ. As Lewis so adequately puts it, "If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed." I know I struggle with Pride in my own life. How we choose to act on such feelings and impulses will make the difference. By first recognizing that we are prideful will bring us quite closer to achieving some level of humility. I would argue that life is much better lived in loving community with others, so why try to always be fighting to be on top of everyone else? Obviously there is nothing wrong with wanting to achieve different things in this life, but a motive check would not hurt.

I feel as if I should address the bumper sticker. To be honest, the sticker basically only served as a jump-start to the content about which I would be blogging and I really had no intentions of writing much about the sticker itself. However, I think it deserves a little bit of attention (which could very well adequately conclude my thoughts): being proud of one's country is not a bad thing in any way. The question is whether or not that admiration is leading towards rash, ill-conceived competitive action. If that is the case, beware of Pride. As the Proverb goes, "Pride comes before the fall" (my paraphrase). You are not the only human being on this earth: while it is okay to look out for yourself, your time would be better spent looking out for others above yourself. Living a life of neighborly love will always be more rewarding than only living for yourself and letting your Pride corruptively and selfishly dictate your every move.