Boast Only In God
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. -- Proverbs 16:18
Most of us have heard this at one time or another. We might not have realized it came from Solomon but it’s familiar just the same. Maybe you’ve even muttered it to yourself as you watched someone thinking more of themselves than you did. Oh, come on. Sure you have.
Nobody likes to see someone being so full of themselves that they appear to believe they’re better than anybody else. It’s that arrogance that really grates. We struggle against it speaking out. We know we’re just as wrong to condemn as they are to think too much of themselves.
But what about that pride that comes from being good at something? I know a man who has always been really good with travel directions. He could go someplace one time and years later still find it. And he never missed an opportunity to let everyone know. He also never missed a chance to laugh at someone else’s inability to do the same thing.
Small strokes have now taken bits of his mind. He can’t remember where he’s been, much less how to get there. Oh, he fakes it pretty well when he’s in an area he travels regularly. But others are noticing even as he’s denying. What he once bragged about is now gone but his pride remains strong. He’d rather get lost than admit he doesn’t know things he once knew.
Several years ago a woman I know moved her elderly father into her home. Her mother had died and her father was having a tough time. She cared for him as best she could but she couldn’t bring herself to help with baths and such. He was her father after all.
She asked her husband for assistance but he refused. He would stay with his wife’s father sometimes. He would cook for him. But he wouldn’t help with those unpleasant toiletry tasks. The elderly man died a few weeks after his wife. Two years later his son-in-law was ravaged by a brain tumor. Before he died he understood how it felt to need help bathing and to be forced to wear diapers.
I don’t mean to sound judgmental. I know what it’s like to think you’re in control of your world and living a great life. And I know what it’s like to face illness and the loss of everything you thought kept you secure. I understand that nothing is permanent and we are all dependent on God for everything. We have no reason to boast of anything beyond what He has done for us.
It’s sad to see people deteriorate. We all do it, if we live long enough. The key is to admit when our skills aren’t what they were. We should show kindness and compassion for those who aren’t as capable in some areas as we are. And we should realize that all our abilities could end in a second.
God’s grace will see us through to the end if we’ll just get past our pride and admit that we need it to carry us home.
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