Sunday, January 2, 2005

Random Thought of the day (some Christian content, as usual)
OK.. so Pride is bad, right?.. well, at least that's what churches seem to focus on as being the bad part of attitude towards self. Pride is bad. The better way of putting it is probably "inflating your ego" is bad.. because that sounds a bit more specific than pride.

But then, a lot of Christians also seem to think that putting yourself down is a good thing. Considering yourself as less than you're worth and not standing up for yourself.. is a good thing. We call it "turning the other cheek" and "being humble".

Actually, neither believing yourself to be above everyone, or below everyone, are particularly good ways to be. The reason for that is that God simply is not in the equation. Either way, the deciding factor in whether you are good or bad is your own achievements, regardless of whether we consider them as good.

And really, anyone who places their security in themselves has no ground to stand on because ultimately we are all fallen and imperfect. Regardless of how faithfully we commit to being better than imperfect, it's simply not possible for us. Everyone gets hurt by the world they grow up in, and everyone contributes to the hurt of the world in some way.

It's only when we put our security and our view of ourself in God's hands that we can really humble ourselves, and also be confident in ourselves. God made us individually, and thus he knows better than anyone- even ourselves, who we are and what we were made to be. Only from him can we actually see the true image of who we are.

Even Jesus had the same principle- God told him who he was, in that he told him that he was his son. God told him what he was to do, as Jesus said that he only did what God told him to. Jesus knew he was the son of God-- I'd say that's pretty reasonable grounds to be confident in yourself- in fact he'd be an absolute fool not to.

But the point is that he was confident in the fact that he was God's son- not in the fact that he knew all the scriptures, or that he'd healed X amount of people. He wasn't confident in what he had done, but in who he was- and that sort of confidence only comes from God. Most of the people around him, when asked who Jesus was, gave a completely wrong answer.. Like Elijah, or one of the prophets.

So yeah..

Forget about what you've done and how good you are at whatever you're good at. Or however bad you may think you are. None of it should decide how confident you are- you should be confident because God has called you his own.
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