|
There were two rich merchants living in the same town and both loved to show off their wealth. One day one of them visited the other, and he observed that the other merchant had a big house three stories high. He noticed that everyone in town was much impressed with the house and said how great it was.
On returning home that merchant was not happy the other merchant got so much more attention than he. So he hired the same architect to build another house three stories high. The architect started the work.
A few days later the merchant went to visit the construction site. When he saw workers digging land to prepare for the foundation, he went to see the architect and asked what was happening. "I am constructing a three stories high house as per our contract," replied the architect. "But first, I have to prepare a solid foundation, then build the first floor, second floor and, last, the third floor."
"I do not want anything else, I just want the third floor right away, as high as the other merchant's house," spoke the impatient merchant. "Never mind the foundation or the other floors." "That cannot be done." replied the architect. "Then I'll hire someone else to do it," spoke the merchant. Yet no one was found able to build a house with no foundation and just a third floor. The project was never done.
This story, from a Sutra attributed to the historical Buddha, is a wise tale about the power and unreasonableness of pride. Pride is more concerned about how one appears to other persons than how one really is. Pride looks to accolades, rather than being content with the unobserved virtue and unnoticed good deed.
Proverbs 13.10 reminds us that pride is unteachable and argumentative, causing disunity and factions: Pride leads to arguments; those who take advice are wise. (NLT)
Proverbs 16.17-19 teaches us that humbleness of heart with poverty is better than sharing wealth with the arrogant: The path of the upright leads away from evil (or, harm); whoever follows that path is safe. Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. It is better to live humbly with the poor than to share plunder with the proud. (NLT)
But where does this pridefulness come from? Jesus, speaking to his disciples in Mark's Gospel, says:
... What comes out of a person makes him dirty. Here is what comes from the heart: wrong thoughts, all kinds of adultery, stealing, killing, wanting things that other people have, doing very wrong things, fooling people, breaking the law, jealousy, saying wrong things about people, being proud, being foolish. All these wrong things come from a person's heart and make him dirty. (Mark 7.20-23, WE)
Pride comes from the heart, the center of affect and will. Pride is misplaced love, inordinate love for oneself. Pride is a misdirection of the will: rather than honoring the Good, that is God, one seeks to appear to others more good than she is.
In praying rightly our heart will be humbled before the One who humbled himself for us in the Passion. We shall prove, then, the spiritual principle that in making ourselves lowly, we know a being lifted up rightly and honorably: Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (I Peter 5.5-7, ESV)
Spiritual Exercise
1. Do you detect any area of your life where you struggle with pride?
2. Define pride in your own words? Define humbleness in your own words?
3. Reflect meditatively on I Peter 5.5-7. What are some ways you can practice the injunction "humble yourselves"? What does it mean to you that God "gives grace to the humble"?
4. How may you "clothe" yourself "with humility" toward other persons in your family? Faith community? Your friends?
*OneLife writings are offered by Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist pastor serving in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Brian lives a vowed contemplative life with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in North Florida. OneLife writings are for anyone seeking to live and share love, joy, and peace in the world and in devotion to God as she or he best understands God.
**To be on a daily reading list to receive notifications of when a new OneLife writing is up, its title, and an excerpt, write briankwilcox@comcast.net .
|
