The Pride Inside

When I was down in D.C. on Saturday, I went to National Community Church close to Union Station for the 5:00 service. It meets in the bottom floor of a coffee shop that the church owns called Ebenezer's. It was a long walk from the hotel and I was pretty sweaty when I arrived.The lead pastor is a dude named Mark Batterson and I have probably been more influenced by his writing, preaching, and thinking, more than anyone else recently. I tend to gravitate to energetic, positive, and practical teaching. Plus, a sense of humor and a tad of self-deprecation.

Self-deprecation can be healthy to a point (i.e. someone willing to be self-revealing about one's own weakness). It can go too far though (TMI), or it can also be false humility. I suppose the real test of humbleness is when others are deprecatory about us. Then we discover if pride is truly behind even our admissions of weakness, as in, "Gee, look how humble I am, I willing to admit how weak, stupid, and full of folly I am." It can seem to be humble until someone says "Amen" and agrees with our self-assessment.

Mark said something quite true about being a Christian. He said it is "Easier to act like one than react like one." And pride is often what gets us reacting wrongly.

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