Pride (In the name of love)

Pride is a deceiver.  It presents the half-truth of a carefully presented image.  It delights to tell you of strength but resents any mention of weakness.  It is keen to supply references, provided only by selected admirers.  It ponders achievement, but hides mention of failure.  Pride is like the singer who only allowed one side of his face to be photographed, it gives an incomplete portrait.  The proud are condemned to never really been known.  I write this because I found myself concerned with my 'image.'

Pride is a lover.  When I was in school I was passionately in love.  The problem was that I was the object of this passion.  Pride is concerned with what people think of 'me.'  It seeks my glory.  It puts me on the throne.  The proud is condemned to live in a very small world, a world that orbits around planet 'me.'  How can pride love a gospel that centres on another?

The gospel is the answer to our pride.  The truth of the gospel dispels the myths.  It helps us see ourselves as we really are, and the picture ain't all pretty.  It tells us that our abilities are actually gifts, and even our righteous deeds are stained with selfishness.  The grace of the gospel says 'It is safe to be real.'  We can be weak, and accepted.  We have failed, and yet are loved.  God knows us better than we know ourselves, and is willing to embrace us.  The glory of the gospel, can break our self-obsession.  It centres on Christ, not on us.  It depends on his achievements, he who died that we might be forgiven, and puts our's in place.  It ought to foster gratefulness, which focuses away from self, as we ponder all that he has done.