It's recently occurred to me..

It's recently occurred to me that people build defense mechanisms the size of the great wall of China. Now, I understand that there could be various reasons for the walls that we build and some of them may even be very valid for what you've gone through. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about someone who's had something bad happen to them, so they build a natural and logical defense so as not to undergo that plight again. That's understandable. No, what I'm talking about are the people who are well aware of some kind of character flaw that they posses, and they will stop at nothing to make sure that nobody can ever say anything to them, and that they never have to answer for it.

  I guess this falls under a myriad of categories all huddled up underneath that tattered umbrella we call pride. The Bible says that a prideful man sets his heart against God, and that pride comes before the fall. C.S. Lewis calls pride the greatest of all sins. He says in Mere Christianity that pride is what made the devil, well, the devil. So look, I have a pretty decent understanding as to why pride exists and why it's such a problem in the world. And I definitely have no delusions of grandeur that I'm going to be the great detective that cracks the case and solves the problem, or even answers any substantial questions with my simple little right-brained blog.

 But if you will bare with my rambling for a second, I want to explore why this such a BIG problem among, of all people, Christians. After all, we are supposed to be the one's that have the greatest understanding of this deadly sin, and the power it has to come in between you and relationships, or what's worse, you and God.
So why is it that some of the most arrogant, defensive and prideful people I know, are Christians? I can't tell you how many times I've been cut down by a fellow brother or sister in Christ, and never been apologized to. I've been falsely accused of things, slandered, and shunned, all by people in the church.

 It seems a simple task for some people to take the position of the pharisees in Luke and thank God that we are not like that poor sinner over there. Why when we get a little spiritual do we all of the sudden forget about our own sin, and feel like we have the best advise in the world, or that we can go ahead and take Christ out of the judgement seat and plant our dirty behinds in His place? I've really had to learn over the years that the the hardest thing for a sinner to do in the world, is to admit that they are a sinner. Not in silent prayer: no we're all great at that; But to the person we've wronged.

 That makes us vulnerable. That makes us lose control. It makes us look in the mirror. God forbid we actually allow people to see us weak. To see us in a state of humility. People often confuse weakness with meekness. Weakness is being without the ability to do something. Meekness is having ample power to do something, but choosing instead to exercise humility. We have all the power in the world to accuse, to judge, to pass the buck, and to dodge responsibility all in the name of not wanting to seem weak. So try taking that " w " in the beginning of that word, and turning it upside down. Jesus didn't ask us to be "w"eek. He asked us to be "m"eek. And the meek shall inherit the earth.