Numbers 28-30; Psalm 49

Man in his pomp but without understanding will perish like beasts…

How true! Pride will be the death of us all. Pride separates us from our fellow earthlings. Pride makes us think we are floating above ground. Pride acts like protection but makes us irritably defensive. Pride makes us invulnerable.

Where does pride come from? Pride in my work and my country, etc aren’t inherently bad. It’s an appreciation and a love. It’s when that love gets possessive…How does it evolve? Entitlement? Being used to good things and having a grip too tight on it? Thinking that you deserve or should have control of how everything should go? How can we prevent a love from devolving into entitlement?

We must try to love without finding your worth in the thing you love. Because when our worth is dependent on something that can change, if that thing changes, we start to freak out, grip harder and work to make sure that something remains the same. But if we can separate our worth from what we love and what we have, even if those things were to disappear, our reaction would be different. We might go to sadness, anger and grief before pride. And if you can be present with those former emotions, they can move. So yes, be proud of what you are and what you have, but hold those with understanding. Then if they go away, you also won’t go away like a beast.

The only thing we can love that will never never change is God. So that is the one thing we can find our true worth in, without it crushing us!