It has gotten to a point where I can recognize the tight binding that happens with pride. It sometimes comes into thought as an affront - like when I am deeply offended by someone's actions. Justification is quick to follow, proving why they are wrong and I am right. Ego stomps around with claims of how I am more smart, more right, more experienced, blah blah blah. Then it grows to a crescendo and then I recognize that all this grandstanding is empty. Totally empty.
Humility is the genius of Christian Science* and I am ready to let go of all of ego's claims to personal superiority (good riddance!) and wait expectantly to see God (as Love) move the situation from binding and limiting to freeing and spontaneously joyful solutions.
I realize I have nothing to lose! That God truly is omnipotent and in charge. That good is not helpless and evil or "error, urged to its final limits, is self-destroyed." I can stand back and see God work. My trust in God continues to grow. I see more clearly that my purpose is to glorify God and not my own agenda. I actively and insistently resist anything unGodlike in my own thinking and refuse to entertain anything unGodlike about others.
I love the surprise of God. God tenderly cares for each one of Her children and is leading us all to greater peace, understanding and harmony. I trust God to be always talking to each of His ideas/Her children, just as I trust God is constantly communicating to me. The more I dive into humility, the more I can let go of self and swim around in a sea of growing possibilities. I can trust God's action to bring about good exponential blessings and peace. I can also trust error to dissolve itself for lack of an audience and lack of attraction.
Can I say this is fun? Well, yes! I have nothing to lose by giving up my pride. I replace it with a growing confidence that God governs and we all have a irreplaceable role in glorifying God.
* See Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 356
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3 comments:
Pride goes before the fall.
How many times on reality shows
does an arrogant contestant
brag about his/her prowess
and then lays an egg?
There’s a section in this weeks lesson that mentions pride:
“His gloom had passed into glory, and his disciples’ grief into repentance, - hearts chastened and pride rebuked.” (S&H 22:32-2)
For many years, I’d often pondered how Mrs. Eddy came to the conclusion that the disciples “pride” had been rebuked by his resurrection. It mystified me and I often dismissed it as irrelevant.
It finally occurred to me that they had clung dearly to what they “knew” the outcome of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial would be. Based on their own limited experience, they assumed evidences before the physical senses, they thought they had it all figured out, they “knew” what the outcome would be. That “knowledge” of what the outcome would be, based on the evidence before them, was their pride.
Jesus, using the same body the disciples had come to know, showed them, in a most loving way, that their stubborn beliefs were unfounded and not true. That life wasn’t dependent on what happened to the flesh and that their original conclusions erred about what the “proper” or “prideful” outcome would be.
The insight Mrs. Eddy had into the effect of Jesus on the disciples pride/knowledge has often helped me to see just how damaging “knowing” what the outcome of something can be. Whenever I find myself looking at something, basing conclusions on human knowledge, I need to look at pride and figure out my part in that.
Great blog article, it brought lots of good stuff to mind, thanks,
Jim
Deep stuff here, Kim. Stories unwritten back of all this good stuff. Shows it isn't that hard to just let go of what's heavy and awkward.
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