05 March 2008

The Ultimate Spiritual Growth Killer

The Pride Gland can most often be found near the "I don't need the instructions" organ. If kept in check with regular humility shots, the Pride Gland will not become harmful. But, if left to itself, it can grow to gargantuan proportions! This could cause many adverse side effects including nausea, indigestion, tendency to fall often, and even destruction!

Imagine picking up a copy of the latest medical magazine, and inside finding a detailed article talking about pride as if it were a disease! You would probably think, "Pride isn't a disease! I don't even have a problem with it anyway!" Oh really?!

Not long ago, my wife and I were on a trip, driving from Tennessee to Maryland. It was no "Sunday Drive". It was a grueling, back cramping, leg tingling fifteen hours of torture! After enduring about fourteen hours of car claustrophobia, we hit the Virginia state line- just another 12oz. Mountain Dew away from Maryland! Suddenly, it hit us, like a bucket of ice water on a hot July day: we were lost! I mean really lost! But how? Brain fog set in! Where did I take the wrong turn? Do I backtrack? At first I was calm, confident that I would figure a way out of this. But, after half an hour into our ordeal, I was starting to panic! How could this have happened? The bad thing was, we weren't lost on a major highway, we were lost in the sticks, the boonies! It seemed as though all the back roads in the world had converged into this mess of dirt roads and nameless streets! It was a nightmare! Then my wife said something that no man on earth wants to hear. "Why don't you stop and ask for directions?" She had cut me to the core. Me, ask for directions? Never! So, we wandered around aimlessly, looking for something, anything that looked familiar. After another hour of this, I could hear my wife's words ringing over and over again in my head. By this time, my Pride Gland was swollen to the size of an economy car! I could feel destruction coming! So, I sucked it up, cleared my throat, and mumbled the words, "Where should I stop?" I couldn't believe I was saying it! Grudgingly, I stopped at the nearest parking lot and asked the first person I saw how to get back to the highway. He gave us directions right to it!

Though I was relieved to be back on track, I tried to act as though I didn't need the directions. I thought, "I could have done this by myself", or "I was going to go this way anyway". The truth is, we would have wandered around for the next week if I had not stopped and asked for directions. The only thing that was stopping me in the first place was pride! Pride! I was a goober!

Now, I could start talking about how life is a journey and sometimes we get detoured, but let's get serious. You only get one chance at this! You "missing a turn" in life is not as easily fixed as just making a u-turn. In life you don't get any u-turns! You get one chance to do it right. Every mistake you make is irreversible! Sure, God will forgive you, but bad decisions will have far reaching consequences. Not just for you, but for everybody around you. So why let pride stop you from getting directions? You might say, "Pride isn't stopping me". Then what is?

We have all been there. We know it is important to spend time in God's Word and in prayer every day, but sometimes it just seems to leak through the cracks. Other things squeeze it out of our schedule. These excuses are usually just the stem of a deep root: pride! Now I'm not talking about the snobby, nose in the air kind of pride. I mean the, "I don't need directions, I can get there by myself" kind of pride. Search your heart!

Remember the fake medical info you read in the fake medical magazine? Well, pride does have side effects! But don't take my word for it. Check this out:

"The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud."

Let's break this down.

The disease: Pride

That's pretty straightforward, isn't it? Simply put, pride will kill your spiritual growth. It will destroy your relationship with God. Don't let it. Prevent it. Stay humble. Admit that you don't know where you are going and stay in God's word. That is where your directions are. You don't have to wander around in life getting more and more frustrated. Get a shot of humility and ask God for directions! Don't be a goober!

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