Realizing That I Am Proud

"If you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, 'How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me, or show off?' The point is that each person's pride is in competition with every one else's pride."  

(CS Lewis)

I was 20 years old, at Furman University, lying on a table in the sports medicine department, getting treatment (ice and electric stimulation) on my lower back (a problem area since high school). I had been a follower of Jesus for almost 2 years.

I had been reading Mere Christianity (CS Lewis) and got to the chapter about pride. Halfway through this chapter, I'll never forget suddenly thinking, "Oh, my goodness! This is me!" Then, I had the feeling that everyone in that training room was looking at me, and that they knew that I was proud. I was embarrassed and ashamed. I wanted to go hide. But I was hooked up to that stupid stimulation machine.

I stopped reading, and wondered how God could love an proud person like me.

That's what pride does.

• Pride makes you think of yourself. 
• Pride makes you feel alone. 
• Pride makes you doubt God's love.

Ever feel like that?

"In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that - and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison - you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you."

Get your copy of Mere Christianity. Read (or re-read) the chapter called "The Great Sin." And watch the great teaching below (or you can download the audio of the sermon "Humility and How I Achieved It" from 7/30/11 on the Grace Church website).

Related Link:

• Humility and Wisdom
• Wins, Losses, Sports, and the Gospel 
• 6 Books That Shaped Me Into Who I Am    
• At Calvary     
• Killing Moralism (from The Resurgence)
• The Essential: Pride (from Tim Challies)