11th entry - Humility

Most of us understand the word "pride" to have more than one meaning. According to my Cambridge English Dictionary, it denotes the feeling of pleasure and satisfaction that we get because we or people associated with us had done or possess something good. It also refers to our feelings of self-worth and respect. How many of us knew that pride also refers to a group of lions? So far, these meanings of pride appear to be positive. However, is pride really a good thing?

Pride is the opposite of humility; in Chinese societies, outward expressions of pridefulness usually take the form of boastfulness or ostentation, and these are regarded with disdain by people at the receiving end. Interestingly, prideful people have a way of hiding or disguising their pride behind a veil of hypocrisy or false humility. Yet, if we criticise the proud, we might be misconscrued as being envious - "sour grapes" is a common expression for this.

To Christians, pride is sin. Pride is the elevation of self above God, a declaration to our Creator that we are just as good if not better than He who created us. Its saying we can achieve success without His blessing, and whatever we did was done on our own strength. In sum, it is the failure to recognise God for who He is. As the saying goes, Pride goes before a fall. Many people do not bask in pride for too long - they turn complacent, lose their fleeting advantage over others, and realise that their source of pride cannot be sustained.

Pride is often confused with dignity. Dignity according to my dictionary is the quality or state of deserving respect, especially because of being controlled, serious and calm. It also means the opinion we have of our own importance and value. In God's eyes, all of us are important and valuable in our individual ways - enough to be considered His children and to be worthy of the sacrifice of a sinless man and Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pride often causes us to judge others, and impose conditions that they need to abide by before we can accept them. If we are truly humble, we will not perceive ourselves to be better than others and therefore we will recognise that we are in no position to judge others and exclude people who we assess to fall below the standards that we set for ourselves. While its true that the Bible provides highly recommended standards for living a holy life set apart for God, we need to examine whether we ourselves fall short of these standards before we begin to impose them on others or criticise other people for falling short of them.

Many Christians are perceived to be lacking tolerance and respect for others who are different from them. This could be because they do not practice self-reflection and self examination and critique. Many choose the easy way out by pointing an accusatory finger at others, forgeting that in the process usually 3 of our other fingers are pointing towards ourselves (I say "usually" because most of us have 4 fingers and a thumb but this does not apply to some).

The above was crystalised from a message that I heard at the church on 26 Feb 06. Its a reminder to me to try to be truly humble, and to focus on loving God and other people wholeheartedly. I know that when I learn to put God and others before myself every time, my heart will be lighter without the burden of grudges borne against anyone (a result of pride), my mind will be more open and begin to improve, and my eyes will start to see things from God's perspective. May the Holy Spirit prompt me this reminder whenever I am tempted to judge others and forget our merciful, gracious and loving God.

(the rose in the photo is called the American Pride - I thought it apt to put the rose here)