In The
Screwtape Letters written by C.S. Lewis, a senior devil urges his young
protégé to divert a Christian’s thoughts away from God and focus instead on the
faults of the people around him at church.
During a
Sunday service, I found myself distracted and somewhat annoyed by a person near
me who sang loudly off key and was out of sync during the unison readings. But
when we bowed our heads for a time of silent prayer, it struck me that the Lord
must surely be more pleased with that other person’s heart than with the
judgmental feelings He saw in mine.
A few
days later I happened to read Proverbs 8 and was struck by verse 13: “Pride and
arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.” Throughout this
chapter, wisdom calls to us to gain an understanding heart (v.5) and to find
life and obtain favor from the Lord (v.35). The alternative is to go through
life with a superior attitude while dying inside in the process (v.36).
Pride is a sword that wounds the person who uses it along with those against whom it is used. Arrogance robs us of all God longs to give us, but “by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life” (22:4).
