Pride seems like a cruel irony to me. Having self-pride can lead to arrogance and will devastate you. Not having self-pride can lead to extremely low self-esteem and will devastate you. Where is the middle ground or is there no middle ground? This is perhaps one of the biggest struggles I am pondering right now. I am only 23 yet I have accomplished a lot more than most my age. All of my personal goals are coming to fruition by the day. It doesn’t seem like there is really anything I can’t eventually accomplish, yet there in lies the trap I fear. In this line of thinking I grow more arrogant, in my arrogance I become complacent, in my complacence I am corrupted, and in my corruption I weaken. Why? Because the key word in that sentence is “I”. What I really should be thinking is: are my goals God’s goals? Is what I’m doing because of me or because of Him? We grow arrogant when we take God out of the picture.
Yet the flip side of the coin is the philosophy that having any kind of pride is wrong. Last time I checked God did choose humanity as His shining achievement of creation. Is that not something to be proud of? Last time I checked God lovingly made us all how He wanted us made. Is that not something to be proud of? Last time I checked God gave us the right to be called His children. Is that not something to be proud of? We get to work and achieve for the furthering of His kingdom…The Kingdom. How can we not be proud of our accomplishments done with His help in His Name? Not having any pride in yourself, as a child of God, is a tragic thing. We have every reason to feel confident and proud when we realize who is backing us.
Perhaps the problem isn’t having or lacking any pride. Perhaps it is what we put our pride in that is the problem.
