An interlude...

Pride is such an awful thing, is it not?  And I will go ahead and tell you that pride is among the chief problems we face in our lives, because it is something we all fight.  This particular sin sits at the root of almost every other sin, and is a sin itself, and there is no way to be completely free of it.  However, what keeps us going is the example of Christ, and the love of God for us.  This love is embodied in His perfection, through the Atonement of Christ, when He lowered Himself beneath even us to take upon Himself the weight of all of our sin for all time... that, blessed friends, is humility.

"For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly.  For rarely will someone die for a just person - though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.  But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us!"

Romans 5:6-8, HCSB

Another thing I ran across in my pre-studies of these seven sins that have been singled out is that each one has a yang to its yin.  There is an accompanying "Heavenly Virtue," as named by Catholicism, for each sin listed in the text.  As you may have guessed, the opposite of pride is humility, and the greatest example of that exists in Christ.  No one else would have died for all of us, and no one else would have endured all the punishment and abuse, and no one else would have remained above temptation while wielding all the power of Heaven.  No one.

Further, this one Man knew everything there is to know about all of us.  Let me expand upon that for a second, because it might seem odd at first... but Jesus Christ was thinking of you and me when He died, just as He was thinking of the repentant thief.  He is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, and immutable.  He sees things in one frame, rather than in a linear sense (something God put into motion for us, but is NOT bound to), and He was, in that form, "God in a bod," as my pastor says.  He was fully man, AND fully God, and He knew everything that could be known for all time already.  Therefore, when He fulfilled the Father's prophecy of redemption, He knew that you and I would need it even in 2012. 

He knew about all the litany of things that I would do in a sinful sense, and He forgave me and absorbed my eternal punishment for it.  He knew that I would violate every single one of the Ten Commandments in some manner, and that I could never maintain a perfect existence.  He knew that I was a flawed, failed, fickle form of flesh that would only be able to fall short of the hopes I would have for myself.  He knew that I would remain on a quest to better my example, and He knew that I would miss the mark FAR more times than I would even get to the outer ring to score any success.  He knew that I would write about it all, while fighting the urge to remain hypocritical in certain areas of my life today (yes, I mean on this exact date).  He knew that it would be harder than anything I have ever faced, even though to just do the right thing and be the good person sounds like the easiest thing in the world.  He knew me, right as that spear pierced His side, and He knew you, too.  

Now, for all the things that I have done, and they are all I can speak about, I know that pride is at the root of all of them.  Oddly, a typo that I corrected has brought forth a new thought, because as I typed the word "at," the "r" slipped in, and I was awakened briefly to how artful our prideful concoctions can be.  It really is a complicated dance, right?  I mean, to take the time to convince yourself that something which CLEARLY is not right is not only fine and passable, but actually the best choice in the given scenario (whatever it may be) is quite the exercise of human will.  That artistry is what makes it all so difficult, I think, when the paint begins to fade and the gallery has to close, as it were.  See, once your gallery goes out of business, all you're left with is crappy paintings that no one else was willing to buy... kinda like when you get busted for something, and the lies that worked in your mind don't hold up for anyone else.  Does that sting for you as much as it does for me?

So the question that remains is where do we go from here?  I once asked that question after making one of my many, many, many mistakes in life, and was informed that I was the one who decided to veer off the road.  It's so true.  As I think about it, I have never been duped into sinning and pridefully thinking I would get away with it.  I have always made the conscious choice to do the wrong thing, even though I knew better and had proof from real experience that it was a bad move.  And I bet if you look back and really dig down to the real truth of it all, you'll find that you can say the same thing.  So where do we go from that?

We go to Jesus.  That's the only direction we should ever go, really, and there is nothing to stop us except ourselves.  We, as Christians, will still be sinners until the end of our life on this earth; but we've been forgiven.  We'll never live a sinless or spotless life... but we also need to own that each and every time we sin, it is a conscious choice, and we should be able to make better decisions with Christ in our hearts.  I know I'll be more cognizant in the future of this, because He accepted and forgave me personally, even though I deserved to go straight to hell.

God bless you all!!!