“Pride versus Poverty of Spirit”

[spring 2005, Spiritual Formation]

(Response papers to chapters of Steering Through Chaos by Os Guiness)

Pride and poverty of spirit are very appropriately the first pair of deadly sins and cardinal virtues. They are not important just as moral choices, but are in fact fundamental to salvation and the fall. They both have much to do with our core beliefs and the way we respond to God’s gift of grace.

Pride reaches far more deeply than we tend to think. It is essentially the biggest con of the history of the universe; one in which we deceive ourselves into believing and acting as if we were the best and most important individual in the universe. This is why we are often not even aware of our pride: it is like a piece of warped glass through which we see the rest of the world.

Pride is not only our warped way of looking at the world; it is also the essence of our rebellion against God. C.S. Lewis was right in saying that all other sins are “mere fleabites” in comparison to pride, because it is the monster that lurks behind them. Idolatry is pride because it says that I have the right to make god in my own image. Isaiah 2:17-18 says that when men are humbled and God alone is exalted, “the idols will totally disappear” (NIV). When we are angry with a person, we are presuming the authority to judge him. Even worry is just pride standing on its head. We fret about our inability to control things as we desire because we believe it is our right to control them. As Guinness notes, a proud person is never a content person, because we are pouring our trust into a broken pitcher.

From a rational perspective, human pride is patently absurd. An honest look at ourselves beside the awesome God of the universe would instantly show us that we are as nothing to His majesty; and this honest look is the only true remedy we have for the pride that eats our hearts like a canker. Humility is, after all, simple honesty. It is only when we see what we are in God’s eyes that we begin to realize our insufficiencies. Yet, humility does not consist of eternally dwelling on our shortcomings. It is not that we have no good in us, but that as creatures, all the good we have was given us by our Creator, and the glory for it belongs to Him.

Humility has a close relationship with salvation. Pride is always in opposition to grace, denying the need for it. It is only in that moment when God brings us to our knees in an acknowledgement of our own poverty of spirit that we can receive the grace He pours upon us. Ironically, it is also in that moment that we are transformed into a thing worth being proud of in God’s eyes. ”A man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor,” (NIV) God says in Proverbs 29:23.

Jesus Christ showed us the way in examples of humility. In the first stunning act of selflessness, He left the glory of heaven to come to earth and be one of us. In teaching His disciples, Christ’s emphasis on the importance of humility shone in an unforgettable object lesson using just a towel and a basin of water. His life of selflessness climaxed in the Garden of Gethsemane with the words, “Not my will, but Thine be done” (NIV).

There is much to remember in following our Lord’s example. Tools such as the list of offices by Jeremy Taylor can be wonderful reminders of the extent of humility to which God has called us. Ultimately, however, the only way to subdue our pride and develop real humility is by keeping our focus on God through earnest prayer and Bible study.

“Envy versus Mourning”

Envy is aptly described as a disease of the soul. It will eat out the heart of the one who allows it into in his life; long before even touching the target of the envy. It taints and stains whole societies and groups of people, turning the success that they do attain into ashes of discontent. It stifles growth, caring naught for anything except itself, and only tears down. Mourning, on the other hand, builds and lifts up. Developing sympathy for a neighbor in trouble will motivate to help and love that other person, building them up to reach their potential.

Sometimes envy can just be in the heart, often resulting in spite, bitterness, anger, and even hatred. It expresses itself in a number of ways aimed at destroying the one envied. The gossip, the vengeful, and the vandal are often motivated by envy that drives them to destroy what others have if they cannot have it. The envy that does not directly act, but just sits back to gloat in their misfortune is just as destructive to the envier as the more outward kind.

In “Piers Plowman,” Langland uses the words “scoffing,” “scandal,” and “back-biting” in his description of the personification of envy. In our culture, these traits have been transformed into forms of entertainment. We are very peculiar people, we Americans, in the way we treat our heroes. The people we idolize are the celebrities, stars of Hollywood and sports. Although Americans shower them with honor and fame, our envy billows just beneath the surface. Scandals make big headlines on the tabloids and newspapers because people like to hear all the latest dirt about the rich and famous. We envy their celebrity, and then take smug satisfaction their personal destruction, because they are more celebrated that we are.

This focus on tearing down the more successful has been somewhat reinforced by America’s democratic emphasis on equality. It is very true from a Biblical standpoint that all men are created equal, but endless exposure to words such as “equality” and “democracy” makes it is easy to gain a wrong conception of what the terms mean. Especially reinforced in the past years by the self-centered esteem ideology taught in schools and through the media, we are bombarded with the idea that we are not only equal under the law and God, but that the ideal is equality in all parts of life including education, talent, money, and opportunities. The human heart needs no prompting self-centeredness, and this results in an outlook on society in which we attempt to bring others down to our level if we cannot attain their level.

Envy is hard to conquer once it is rooted in a heart. In repenting of an envious attitude, though, it can be helpful to remember the Golden Rule given to us by Jesus: treat others as you would like to be treated. This is one essence of mourning with those who mourn. Every person likes to have their successes acknowledged and suffering sympathized, and when we treat others with that courtesy, we will find ourselves reacting not from envy, but from love. Love is, after all, the final antidote to all sin.

“Avarice versus Mercy”

Every once in a while, a thing you have seen twenty times before strikes you afresh on the twenty-first time, with meaning as new as the dawn. This happened to me as I was reading this chapter on avarice, and came to the quote from Jesus on page 175, “Man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). How very true, and how very convicting that statement is. I had to stop and think of all the mounds of things in my life: my CDs, my treasured books, my clothes, my laptop, my friends, my home. Not that things in and of themselves are bad; God is gracious and gives good gifts to His children. What convicted me was the realization of how much I rely on them to make me happy. This is a sad and ridiculous picture. I am turning my back on the only One who can fulfill me, and running after something that cannot. Avarice has at its heart idolatry.

Greed is a particularly destructive one of the deadly sins. The problem of greed is that it is never satisfied. The emphasis turns, ironically, from the good an object can give to an obsession with possessing itself. We want money to make our lives happier, but if greed takes us, we may end up hanging onto wealth so tightly that we have no enjoyment in life because of constant worry over getting more or keeping what we have. The Bible talks about rich people unable to sleep at night, contrasted to the hardworking poor man. Ecclesiastes talks about the futility of wealth as well.

Our society encourages greed by a widespread confusion of needs and wants. We have a deep inner need for security, affirmation, comfort, and acceptance, we are told. If we see these as needs, then we will feel right in seeking to fulfill them in any way possible, because they are our right. I think our prosperity in America has given us the mistaken view that we are entitled to a life of relative wealth and comfort.

Even when this greed is recognized, one manifestation is, I think, often overlooked because of its intangible nature. Some people become greedy and possessive in relationships to those they profess to love. In The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis described a woman who thought she loved her son, yet was so possessive of him that she would rather have him in purgatory where she could “take care of him” than in heaven under the care of God. I have seen this happen, and it is truly tragic, because there are few more sure ways of poisoning a relationship. Greed in a relationship ends in manipulation in order to “keep” the other person, and finally bitterness since you can never truly possess another person and still remain in love.

The opposite of sin is always true love; specifically in this case, the demonstration of love called mercy. In greed, we want all that we can possibly grasp for ourselves. In mercy, we witness the poverty of another and our only thought is to fulfill the needs we see. Consider the result of God’s mercy: the sacrifice of His beloved only Son, who gave up the glories and riches of heaven to bring heaven to us.

If, through the sanctifying work of God’s Spirit, I develop a heart of deep love for others and concern for their needs, greed will vanish. Beyond even this, however, is the true cure for greed. We have to be able to love God and find all that we need in Him before we can escape the chains of greed that tie us down to earthly possessions. Paul said he had learned the secret of being content in all circumstances, and that secret is no real secret to those who truly know God. Man’s life consists not in the abundance of things he can amass, but in the relationship to the awesome and divine source of every good. With that relationship strong we can, like Job, bless God even if we are left with nothing on this earth.

“Anger versus Meekness”

This chapter gave me an arresting glimpse at the incredible beauty of meekness in the face of destructive anger. Anger festers all around us in the world, like poison in the air. It enters our lives, destroying and transforming us into monsters. The meekness of love, on the other hand, is stunning in its strength to heal and inspire. This chapter reminded me of the radical love God calls us to live, and made me desire to be like Christ. It disgusted me for the hostility I see in my heart, and reminded me of my desperate need for the power of Christ in order to love.

Plutarch’s account of Alexander murdering his friend gave me pause. I have felt that kind of anger before, the kind that strikes a loved one and then looks in horror on the cruelty of its blow. Anger is blinding in the sense that it influences us to do foolish things we would never rationally condone. When I was very young, I remember once becoming angry with my older brother and indignantly proclaiming that I never wanted to talk to him again. My mother told me that if I felt that way, I would not be allowed play with Mike any more. It was less than minute before I was nearly desperate with remorse, wanting back what I had so carelessly thrown away. I had meant my words when I said them, but I was not looking at the consequences from a rational perspective. I so often think that I have the right to judge and sentence another, only to find that my judgment is petty and self-serving.

We condone anger on an almost daily basis. We also tend to think of anger as something that others force upon us, a physical reaction that we cannot stop. How often do I say the phrase, “He made me so mad!” as if the offending person pushed a button in my soul to turn on my anger without my consent? We feel that anger is something we have a right to; in fact, anger has the peculiar distinction of being one of the only sins in which often we actually feel righteous as it tears at our soul. I think this is related to the one-sided, blinding nature of anger as well as pride and our natural sense of justice. When I am angry with someone else for not giving me what I feel my due, or for treating me worse than I think I deserve, I am actually angry at them for “transgressing” the rules that I wrote in my own heart and demanded that they obey. God is wrathful for the same reason, but His wrath is a righteous anger because He has the right to set and enforce the rules, while we do not.

The only proper anger on our part is at the transgression of God’s law, but even that can be perverted and twisted. How often does it happen that a person has a good cause, but discredits it by ugly anger and bitterness? We see this even in Christians circles. We are rightly outraged at abortion; but when we presume to act in anger upon those who practice it, our sin become as ugly than theirs. We claim to have the moral high ground, yet degrade ourselves with revenge and self-righteousness, forgetting grace. C.S. Lewis makes an important point in saying that we must hate the sin but love the sinner.

It is easy to say that, however, but much harder to practice it. Meekness is extremely rare in this world, and when we do see it, it has an astounding effect upon those it touches. What Martin Luther King said about love deeply affected me. Jesus exhibited that unconquerable meekness as He approached the cross. If you think about it, of all men in history, Jesus most had the right to be angry; but He was not. He loved sinners; and in loving them, turned enemies into brothers. His meekness cut like a thunderbolt through the anger of history. He put aside the anger which was His by rights and showed us the way to treat with love those that deserve no love from us. It is only through the power of His Holy Spirit that we can live this kind of love.

“Sloth versus Hungering and Thirsting After Righteousness”

This chapter, particularly the section by Pascal, was an eye-opener for me. I had always thought of laziness and simply not wanting to do one’s work. I did not realize the deeper, spiritual ramifications that the sin of sloth carries, nor had I realized the true deadliness of those ramifications. This was also a convicting chapter, because it enabled me to see spiritual sloth in my own heart that I had never seen before. There are many times when I act as if I simply do not care what God has done for me or what He is doing in the world. I think that sloth, in Christians, can be related to ingratitude. I am not fully grateful for what Christ went through to buy my salvation, or for the mercy and grace of God in my day-to-day life, so I treat Him as if He does not matter. Some ways that sloth manifests itself in my life are in my failure to make devotions and prayer a high priority, as well as my lax and excusive attitude toward what I think are small sins in my life.

I think that sloth can be a big temptation in a place like Cedarville University. I personally find Bible classes such as this one, daily chapel, and the clear Christian focus of both the faculty and curriculum to be uplifting and a great blessing in my life. I would not trade them for the advantages at any other secular college. Nevertheless, with Christianity surrounding us, it can sometimes be a very real temptation to slip into a life pattern of not actively seeking God, because it can feel like we are being “spoon-fed” all we need of God though required classes and chapel. It is all too easy (and I have fallen to the temptation more than once in the last semester) to feel like our spiritual requirements are being met though these organized, public activities and that we do not necessarily need to spend time in relationally seeking God through prayer and quiet time. It is too easy to feel godly.

As a student at a Christian college, I need to be aware of the trap in this tendency, which will in time turn me into an outward Christians with no deep love of God in my hearts. Recognizing it as a temptation can help me to fight it when it comes up, and drive me with repentance and dependence back to God as my personal, not just corporate, Savior.

“Lust versus Purity of Heart”

It is not a pleasant thing to confess, but this chapter has convicted me afresh of the lust deep in my own heart. It is easy to tell myself I have no problem in regard to purity because I have done nothing scandalous in that way; but, as with every sin, in the heart it is not so simple. The standard to which I have been holding myself is not as high as the one Jesus holds up for His followers in Matthew 5:27-28. Jesus requires purity of every thought, not only in deed, and there I fall short.

Lust, like every other sin, is rebellion against God and has deeper root causes that are part of the sin nature of every human being. The first is idolatry; impurity comes from not keeping our eyes fixed upon what is truly of value, on heaven. Lust obsesses over an earthly pleasure instead of seeking true fulfillment in Christ. This search for pleasure is a purely selfish pursuit, which is the second root cause of lust. Lust disguises itself with borrowed raiment and claims to be love; but in the end, lust wants only pleasure for itself. True love desires the pleasure of the beloved first, and enjoys the beloved for the worth of his or her person, not for what it can get from him or her.

Lust is a huge problem in our culture today, because sex is so glorified in our society. Venues such as advertising, fashion, media, and entertainment give the false impression that sex is the only thing worth living for, and that people are to be held in esteem for the shape of their bodies. For people such as media celebrities who are obsessed with sex because we expect them to be obsessed with it, this leads to shallow and tragic lives such as described by Cardenal’s poem about Marilyn Monroe. This will continue as long as we allow ourselves to be idly entertained by sex. Meanwhile, men and women all over American fall easily into the temptation to follow every immoral desire, because they have been taught this as the way to true fulfillment in life. The result is painfully clear in American culture: marriages and families in every kind of home crumble in the chaos.

This temptation is every bit as real to a relatively sheltered Christian girl like myself. The bombardment of movies and magazines that portray any sex as fun and fully acceptable tend to desensitize and leave the conscience dull instead of distressed over the lost state of this world, as God desires His followers to be. Even if not actively engaging in promiscuity, it is all too easy to drift along thoughtlessly without making an earnest effort to be pure in every thought.

Before reading this chapter, when I thought of purity, I always thought of it as a negative. Purity seemed to mean not having certain thoughts or certain actions; this chapter has brought fresh to my mind the fact that purity is in fact a positive and shining quality. Purity is not a vacuum like the absence of sin, but rather a heart so full of God that room for wrongful thoughts is not possible. In I Corinthians, Paul connects sexual purity with the fact that we belong, not to ourselves, but to God. This includes the heart, and when I love God with all my heart, lust cannot captivate me. If my fulfillment comes from God, I will not have a “need” for sex to fulfill me; nor can I be pressured into sinful action with my body in an attempt to gain the approval of other people. Also, if my heart is purely focused on God, I will see people in God’s eyes of unconditional love and not my eyes of manipulative and selfish desire. The best way to guard my purity is to have a heart concerned purely with God.