Pride

When I was a student in college, we had a student (who will remain anonymous) who thought that he was God’s gift to womankind.  He didn’t play basketball at the gym; he was too busy fixing his hair.  He never played flag football with the rest of us.  He had to iron his shirts.  Girls like crisp seams, you know.  All of us male students hated him.  I’m not sure what the girls thought of him.  I still can’t get into the head of a girl (even after 71 years).  One day it was his turn to sing in chapel.  He walked to the podium, confidence dripping, scanned the audience, and nodded to his voice teacher to begin the introduction.  He began, “I was a sinner all covered with sin, Lost and defiled with no merit to …”  And then he stopped.  He had mistakenly used the word “sin” instead of the correct word, “stain”, so he couldn’t remember the next word “claim” because it didn’t rhyme.  After an embarrassing moment, Mrs. Hermann began a shorter version of his introduction and he began again, with a fearful look instead of confidence.  “I was a sinner all covered with sin, Lost and defiled with no merit to …”  And he stopped again.  Dr. Roberson stood, stepped to the podium brushing the boy aside and said, “Young man, practice a little more and try it again next time.”  With that, the boy slithered to his seat humiliated.  The sad part of the story is that no one felt sorry for him (I’m not sure about the girls.  See above).  Hey, if you claim to be perfect, your fall will be greater. Remember, you WILL make mistakes in life.  If you recognize that you are merely human, others will have empathy for you when you make mistakes because they know that they are human too.  Solomon said in Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”  We all make mistakes, but if we are humble, people will have sympathy for our mistakes and forgive.  But if we are proud … well … be prepared to slither away.