Blind to Pride

It's always been interesting to me that pride is one of the words songwriters love to us. It rhymes with lots of stuff and fits into lovesongs -- especially break-up songs -- very well. But it's almost always coupled with a particular word. Pride is never immature or unreasonable; pride is always "foolish pride".

I wonder where that lyric originated.

The truth is pride is foolish and immature and unreasonable and universal. C.S. Lewis says that pride is the one vice everyone struggles with. He says it's loathed when seen in others, but hardly anyone ever thinks they are guilty of. Christians in prior centuries proclaimed pride as one of the Seven Deadly Sins. In fact, most went farther than that; they said that pride is probably the most deadly -- the one from which all other sins spring.

I think what makes pride most dangerous is its ability to blind us to our own faults.

In the comments section of yesterday's post, Jenn writes:

"If I'm asking the question, 'Am I prideful?' does that indicate that I'm not, or that I am very self-deceived? I truly have a difficult time knowing. When I feel good about something I did, I don't know if that's prideful or if that's an indicator of healthy self-esteem. How do you know before it gets out of control?"

Great question. In my experience, most of the people who struggle with pride have no idea it's a problem. Look at Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4. Does he think he's got a problem? No. But God does.

I'm interested: how would you answer Jenn?