Monday, April 23, 2007

Pride

Posted by Adam:

"You probably think this blog is about you. Don't you?"

"How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshipping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how he approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people: that is, they pay a penny worth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound's worth of Pride toward their fellow men. I suppose it was of those people Christ was thinking when He said that some world preach about Him and cast out devils in His name, only to be told at the end of the world that He had never known them.

And any of us may at any moment may be in this deathtrap. Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good- above all, that we are better than someone else - I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not be God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether."

-C.S. Lewis, 'The Chief Cause of Misery'

This hit me hard. How many times a day does my religious life make me feel that I am good, or better than somebody else? This must be one of the chief snares of the devil. God bless my debating and philosophy. Yet, what is my intention? What is my motivation? It is many a time pride that makes me challenge another. God speaks in silence and beauty and no one can hear Him in the noise of debate. Religion can be a funny thing; Man believing in something bigger than himself, yet MAN is the one doing all the speaking and the doing.

--Adam

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The question of why you are asking is an important one. Are you trying to make yourself right, or figure out if you are right. OR are you trying to find the truth together with someone else.

Its a difficult thing to stay on track especially with a God who is not screaming at you from a pulpit.

Anonymous said...

that was from GED Nate... for got to put my name

joel said...

where do you go to church jonathan? ive been going to fiu for over a year now, and the church im going to now is on the verge of going in a completely different direction after the pastor left... needless to say, im in the market for a new body of believers that are willing to dig deep and tackle 2007, not 1987... id love to hear from you.
joelibyan@yahoo.com