Pride, Humility, Gratitude
ONE
Gratitude conquers every vice, but I think we lack gratitude because we don’t grasp our own goodness, our own value.
And because we don’t grasp the goodness and greatness of ourselves, a whole host of vices could be avoided.
You see, every sin has its roots in pride. Pride is to seek and to establish our self-worth apart from God in a way that turns us away from God. Pride is all the ways we try to make ourselves relevant or matter apart from God.
How will you do this, how will you try to ensure your importance apart from God? By pleasure or conquest or praise or wealth? That is just gluttony, lust, greed, and vanity. Or will you try to prove your worth by undermining anyone who threatens your importance? That’s envy. We can always resort to anger, to viciously or mercilessly attacking anyone who does not take our importance seriously enough.
Or I guess we could resist the invitation to let God make us worthwhile by our busyness and hyperactivity or eating or fornicating or earning – all the ways we try to distract ourselves and escape God’s invitation to the greatness to which He calls us – to become a saint. When we are hungry, angry, lonely or when we don’t feel good about ourselves, we reach for an escape and that is sloth.
Pride, the attempt to establish our worth in anything apart from God only leads to a cascade of sin and the resulting unhappiness.
TWO
Who are you? What is your value, why do you matter?
Your worth is securely founded on the fact that God made you in His image and poured His divine life into your soul through baptism making you His adopted son or daughter.
You may not believe this but God actually thinks you make the world a better place and so you know it is true because it’s based on His word – not on the fickle nature of humans. God, your Father delights in you. But God loves you not because of what you do or have failed to do:
But because of what you are – His son or daughter
Why do you love your children and think they are amazing?
Just because they are your children!
God loves you for the same reason!
You say; “No, that is not possible. I have so many sins, how could God delight in me?” A good Father or Mother doesn’t love their child because they are a high-performance kid.
· They love their child because it’s THEIR CHILD.
· And that’s why God, your Father, loves you.
· Just because you’re His child!
Recognizing that love should take away your anxiety about measuring up. Recognizing that love should make you strong, should make you confident that you belong in the world, and that the universe is better, and that God is pleased because you exist. God looks at you and says; “It is good that you exist, how wonderful you are.”
THREE
Humility is the antidote for pride but we misunderstand humility. It means two things:
A. I am not God and I have limits.
B. I am God’s immeasurably beloved and precious child. I am worthwhile, I have gifts, talents, and strengths that are needed for the good of others.
The fact that I have limits is not a downer – it is a source of joy. I don’t have to try to be God. I don’t have to be perfect. I can admit and accept I have limits. This takes the pressure off, which allows me to be even more creative and use the gifts God has given me as His beloved child - and this is a source of joy.
Joy depends on knowing the truth about ourselves, I think, for at least four reasons. Knowing who and what we are helps us to: a) cultivate gratitude. b) not think about ourselves too much. c) appreciate the magnificence of other things. d) resist the urge to feel as though our salvation depends upon ourselves.
FOUR
Your personal value and your goodness is indestructible. It comes from God. You don’t have to do anything to make yourself worthwhile. We should never feel the panic to justify our existence or escape it in ways that lead to sin. Now - all the pressure is off to make yourself matter.
That being true - God wants us to pursue and eventually reach perfection by means of education and practice of virtue, relationships and work, and suffering and experiencing beauty. Sleep, pray, make great meals and eat. Put initiative and intentionality into relationships and enjoy friendships. Create and work and build. Think of what God does. God creates and then He watches over what He created and brings it to perfection. You are invited to do the same with Him and by doing what your Father does you become more like Him. So even though you don’t need to do anything to be of value, as God’s kids we get to do and pursue all kinds of fantastic things and become amazing people and pursue the good things of life and delight in them because God made us for delight and not for sorrow.
FIVE
Gratitude is the bridge to move us from pride to humility.
Each day, reflect on these questions: For what am I grateful, and to whom I am grateful? These good things are the concrete manifestations of God’s love for me. Then ask; “how have I responded to His love?” With gratitude I recognize my need for God and the good things coming from Him to me.
We grow in gratitude by becoming aware of the good in each present moment. The good of the person I am with, the nature I am walking in, the work I am doing, the meal I am preparing or eating, this time with God in friendship and prayer.
Find the good of each moment and delight in it and you will grow in gratitude.
In this way happiness follows gratitude.