Matthan and his cousin Kendrick, who’s a year older, were playing with a jump rope the other day. They were pretending the length of pink rope was a corded telephone, and they each held one end to an ear and adopted an affected British accent as they hollered back and forth.
“How are you?” Matthan asked, to which Kendrick replied, “I’m better’n you!”
This did not please Matthan at all. “No!” he yelled. “I’m better’n you!”
They spent a minute or two in a heated go-around. “No. I’m better’n you!” “No! I am better’n you!” This was vastly amusing to Laverne and me as we listened in on the debate.
Although it was amusing, I later went about my work while pondering human nature, the old Adamic inclination toward pride and evil that is born into every person, not one soul missed. It makes each of us want to stand tall and announce “I’m better’n you.” Perhaps we do so with words and actions that are veiled and civilized and thinly coated with a polite veneer. But the meaning is the same.
Isaiah 14:13-14 tells why Lucifer had fallen from heaven. “For thou hast said in thine heart . . . I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. . . . I will be like the most High.”
Lucifer’s issue was also pride. He wanted to be like the most high God. He too wanted to say, “I’m better’n you.” Because of his proud heart, he was cast out of heaven. We also need to learn to control those proud hearts of ours.
Twice we’re told, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5), which reinforces what we’re told in Proverbs 6:16-17: the Lord hates a proud look. He hates a proud heart too, yet the unruly heart of humankind, almost from birth, wants to say, “I’m better’n you.”
I find that meditating on the vastness of God’s creation—and acknowledging the unfathomable depths and widths and heights of God’s creator mind which brought all this into being by a single uttered command—makes me feel very small indeed. In fact, it wipes away any desire to feel proud. It generates instead a feeling of awe that makes me see myself in my true light—I am nothing if I have not God.
Phillip Keller, in his book David: The Shepherd King, writes, “It is not who I am that matters half as much as Whose I am.”6
When I begin to grasp this, everything comes into perspective. Who I am does not matter, nor do my achievements, pedigree, or background. Having God within my heart is what matters. That and serving God as the Lord and Master of my life.
Those who are truly God’s children lose that desire to announce, either with words or deeds, “I’m better’n you.” They know that being a forgiven child of the Most High is all that will matter at the end anyhow, and they want every other person to find that grace and love and forgiveness too. For in true humility of heart one finds the greatest depths of peace.
| Prayer | Reflection |
| Lord, I know that you resist the proud and shower your grace on the humble person. I need your help daily, even hourly, to become truly humble in heart. | How could I serve someone else today by being humble and willing to be used of God? |