Not the Results you Wanted?
“When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
but with the humble is wisdom."
Proverbs 11:2
We don't always get what we were going for. Sometimes this is comical. As a carpenter, sometimes a simple mistake can bring a lot of laughter (or a lot of frustration), especially when the results are nearly the total opposite of what you were intending. It is good to be able to laugh these things off, to not take ourselves too seriously, and to see that we are finite and limited and to more enjoy the relative successes that we do have.
But sometimes, the ill-fate of our best efforts is more painful. Robert Burns preserved that very concept in poetic form, when he wrote his classic ode "To a Mouse." In short, it is the story of a mouse's nest that was turned up by a plough, representing the often violent and catastrophic disruption of life. The mouse's nest was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, the poem goes, "The best-laid schemes of mice and men go oft awry, and leave us naught but grief and shame for promised joy."
How does this relate to our proverb? Well, sometimes our tragedies are pure tragedies. They come from things outside our control, outside of what we could have seen, predicted, or planned for. But the scripture here reminds us that sometimes our downfalls come from our own decisions. One of the big concepts of the Bible is the contrast between pride and humility. It is generally accepted that too much pride is a bad thing, but in fact, the Bible can't say enough about the dangers of pride.
Isaiah 2:12 - "For the Lord of hosts has a day
against all that is proud and lofty,
against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;"
Proverbs 8:13 - "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate."
Proverbs 16:5 - "Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord;
be assured, he will not go unpunished."
James 4:6 - "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
How do you picture pride? Do you picture it as loud boasting and an arrogant look? Do you picture it as a boisterous, type-A personality telling of all his achievements? Do you picture it as a wealthy leader belittling others and lifting himself up? Pride often looks like this, but if we think only in these categories, we run the risk of leaving ourselves comfortably out of the equation.
For you, pride might look like the endless pursuit of not being truly known, or not being embarrassed. Pride might be putting on a false-face in the public eye, but being in shambles of spirit in private. Pride might be hiding every flaw or hardship in your life, lest others think you don't have it all together. Pride might be cowering behind a stained-glass facade of religious piety, while inwardly despising others and neglecting your Savior. Yes, pride is not always loud and public. Sometimes it is private and tucked away in the recesses of our thoughts and inclinations.
We often rejoice to see a loud and boisterous person brought low, and that would be one application of this proverb. But when pride comes, then comes disgrace. Which means, for those of us who struggle with the pride of avoidance, of running from honesty or transparency, sometimes that disgrace is exactly what we need, and the irony of it is its exactly what we were avoiding. In our eager but sometimes prideful human pursuits, we often end up in exactly the place we intended not to: embarrassment.
Embarrassment can be a grace. Being found out, being seen for who we truly are, being seen in our weakness or flawed nature can be painful, but it may be the very flame to singe off a little more of our pride. The pride which the Lord detests. The pride which the Lord resists. If you avoid being known and seen, avoid the transparency of who you actually are, if you put on a good show for others just for the sake of saving face, be careful - you may not get the results you were looking for! God has a way of, sometimes even comically, allowing us to be embarrassed in our silly attempts at looking perfect.
And if He does that, embrace it - for He is pushing us to humility, and with that comes Wisdom. Wisdom to live life with and through our flaws and failures. Wisdom to live righteously and honestly. There is a unique tie between wisdom and humility, for Wisdom is synonymous with the fear of the Lord (Prov. 9:10). Fearing God, desiring to please Him, caring mostly what His view of us is rather than others is a great way to squash this quiet pride. The fear of God removes all lesser fears. When we live before God, who truly knows and sees us, and care first about His perspective, then we will begin to be less and less worried about the disgrace of embarrassment and shame, for He sees us, and knows us, and loves us.
Grace and peace to you all,
Pastor Aaron Frost
January 20, 2023
