Skip to main content

Pride. Good or Bad? - Addison Zanda

 Reading Dark Night of the Soul has been really great so far. It honestly allows a deep side of thinking, conviction, and change. A big thing we have to realize is that we're sinners. When allowing the devil to play mind games with us and run to his playground, we're no longer wanting to rid ourselves of sin and temptation. Along with sin, we seem to have a lot of pride more often than not. Now, pride may not be how we see things, but it's sneaky and can truly break you apart, "there often comes to them, through their imperfections, a certain kind of secret pride, whence they come to have some degree of satisfaction with their works and with themselves" (Book 1, Chapter II). Take a look at Ezekiel 29:9-10, "The land of Egypt will become a desolate wasteland, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD. "Because you said, 'The Nile River is mine; I made it,' I am know the enemy of both you and your river..." The Nile River was Egypt's pride and joy, a life giving river cutting through the middle of the desert. Rather than thanking God, however, Egypt declared, "The Nile River is mine!" We do the same when we say, "This house is mine." Or, "I did it by myself." Sometimes we take for granted what God has given us, thinking we have made it for ourselves.  Of course, we have put forth a lot of hard effort, but God supplied us with the resources, abilities, and opportunities to make it happen. Tempted to pat yourself of the back? Why not give God some praise instead?

I commented on Emma Kate and Clabo's post.

Comments

  1. ClaboApril 12, 2021 at 11:04 PM

    I completely agree with you man. Pride is one of the most conniving of sins used against us. Sometimes even the way we look at our Christianity and relationship with God can be a place where pride can enter in. It just comes to show how important it is to say how good God is instead of how good we are.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haley RiddleApril 14, 2021 at 10:16 PM

    Very true. Sometimes we don't even realize we're prideful. We assume the prideful ones are those who boast and are constantly trying to be better than everyone else, when really we are all prideful at times. Whenever I am about to lead worship, I pray that God would use me and use my voice for His glory. If I don't remind myself of how I got to where I am then it's easy to feel proud when in reality it's all thanks to God.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Word Painting in Vesta—Lily Caswell

  Word painting in Weelkes’s As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending is quite interesting. And because that is a really long title, I’m calling it Vesta from now on. Word painting is basically when the melody matches up with the lyrics. So in Vesta, when it says “ascending” and “descending”, there are obviously scales going up and down. The madrigal was written for six voices to sing unaccompanied, so when they start to come together, it matches with the lyrics; so if the lyric says “two by two”, there are only two voices; “three by three” there is another voice added, and so forth. All the parts combine in exclamation before Vesta before it is left “all alone” to the highest soprano. All the way to the end of the piece, word painting continues when shouts of “Long live fair Oriana” with the bass sustaining long notes. Word painting in and of itself is a highly interesting topic because a musician takes the words of a poem or a sonnet and writes a melody line that pertains to cer...
4 comments
Read more

Honor and Gain; Which Do You Seek?

 Pericles.... thanks? I can only imagine that's what the family and friends were thinking after they heard his historic funeral speech honoring the departed. What do I mean? Well, Pericles briefly mentions the men who have fallen at the beginning of his speech, but then goes on to discuss how great Athens is, and how the contributions the city has made to the world are unmatched.. why? I understand that he is also commending the citizens of Athens and empowering them to continue to make their city greater, but I thought this was supposed to be a funeral speech about dead war heroes, not about Athens. Another thing I found interesting is what Pericles said on page five about honor: "For it is only the love of honour that never grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some would have it, that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness" (Thucydides, page 5). Have you ever watched a show or movie, or read a book, about a duel between two men? There is always an unspoken agre...
Post a Comment
Read more

Aristotle Might Not Like Me...Or Jesus//Haylee Lynd

      Aristotle says that the man who does not get angry at the things he should be angry at "is thought unlikely to defend himself; and to endure being insulted and put up with insult to one's friends is slavish" (Aristotle 41). While he states that passivity is preferred to excessive anger, he still gives great criticism to it.  In contrast to Aristotle, the man who Christians believe to be the most just is Jesus who states in Matthew 5:39-40, "...do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well." Essentially, arguing that one is not to respond in anger when insulted or hurt, to not defend one's self. Most individual's are unable to achieve this. Our natural instinct is to defend ourselves, especially in physical cases. However, Christians strive to be like Jesus in this way. I would also argue that it is a very admirable wa...
2 comments
Read more