We've all heard the saying that pride goeth before the fall. What is it about pride that is so attractive? What is it about pride that trips us up? Is there good pride and bad pride?

Pride is a conceited superiority. It is a part of our mind that tells us we are better than, greater than, more important than, more deserving than or more qualified than anyone else. It is an arrogance that deceives us and tries to make us believe that we don’t need God or others, we only need ourselves. Pride is all about "me, myself, and I." Pride is essentially self-worship.



Another face of pride is self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is the arrogance that says, “My way is right, no other way is right.” It’s setting oneself above others and proclaiming oneself as better than others. It is looking at the homeless person or the less educated or those with less money and thinking we are better than them.

I believe that arrogance and pride are the vain attempt to fill a hole left by a lack of self-worth. Self-worth is something much different than pride. It’s the comfortable knowledge that we have been gifted with talents that are useful and please God and other people. A quick wit or a gift for painting, a way with people or a knack for cooking, all of us have God-given talents that when practiced can astound. Self-worth recognizes these talents as having value with out the need to make them seem better than anyone else’s talent.

It's hard to stop and think for a minute, "No, I'm not worth more than anyone else, God loves us all the same and His opinion is the only one that really matters."

What is that thing that drives us to need to feel better than others?

For one, we listen to TV, especially the reality shows, where there is always a competition going on - and also advertisements that suggest if we buy a certain product we will be better than those who don’t have it.

But, I suspect it is an obsessive need to be loved. The very nature of pride says, “I don’t need you.” This drives people and God away, leaving the proud alone and lonely. Not just humanly lonely, but spiritually lonely, too. It is almost as if the proud spirit is crying out desperately for us to notice it is special when we already knew that it was. It’s the owner of the proud spirit that doesn’t know and can’t seem to understand that indeed he is special, but not better than the rest of us.

And before we all get a little puffed up with the idea that ‘we’re not like that!’ lets remember that we all are like that to one degree or another. No human has driven pride completely out. Many of us have our own little hidden prides. Hidden prides can be the most dangerous kinds of all because they are often disguised as what we believe to be virtues.

It is easy to recognize the big prides, the ones that say, “I’m bigger than, better than, more than, smarter than, wiser than anyone else. “ Inverted pride is a hidden pride that says, ‘I’m less than, worse than, uglier than, more useless than anyone else.” This kind of pride is disguised as the virtue of humility but it’s not humility at all. This too is a deflated self-worth but this one says that God made me wrong. God doesn’t do anything wrong. It is we that warp what He has made so perfectly. There are many kinds of hidden pride and our job is to sniff them out and be rid of them. They are no better than the visible prides and will do the same kinds of damage to our spirits.

Pride is a difficult thing. Pride manifests itself in selfish motives, an exaggerated ego, a low opinion of others, and disrespect for God. Most often we use the word pride where we really mean value. We tell our children, “I’m proud of you.” We really mean, “you have great value to me.” All of us want to be valuable and loved but when we become so desperate for these things, we often develop an unhealthy pride to mask our desperation.

What we really must understand is that no matter what anyone thinks of us, God loves us and made us just right. We are not perfect by any means but we are all gifted. He knows it; we must learn it and get beyond the need to let everyone know about it. Focus instead on thanking God for the great job He did.


Be cool…..Ric



"A man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor." (Proverbs 29:23)