Confession time: What's something you are proud of? Is it your financial success? Your physical fitness? Your home or car or job? Your grades in school? Your sense of style? Whatever it is, write a paragraph on the theme of being more humble in this area.
For me: I'm proud of my reasoning. My intellectual ability to analyze an argument logically, and use language specifically and effectively. I can think of at least three reasons not to be so proud of this strength. First, I can take no credit for having a logical mind. As Chris Rice says in The Face of Christ, "See you had no choice which day you would be born
Or the color of your skin, or what planet you'd be on
Would your mind be strong, would your eyes be blue or brown
Whether daddy would be rich, or if momma stuck around at all" I didn't choose my gene pool, or to be born in a country with free public school, or to have white skin which gave me an advantage in that school system, or to have a dad who could pay for college. Not to discount the work that I (and everyone else with a college degree) had to do to graduate, but the opportunity itself was a gift that not everybody gets. Second, the reasoning abilities I have could be gone in a second. One stray bullet, one stray blood clot, one stray lightning bolt, and I could be looking at a life with much less ability to think, or articulate, or both. Third, the abilities I have, I have not always used well. I have hurt my wife by arguing to win. I have been unkind (most recently in a debate on facebook these last few days in the comments on Small Stones day...10, I think it was). So, to recap, I can't take credit for any ability to reason, every moment that I retain that ability is a gift, and I have misused that ability on multiple occasions. So yes, a little more humility in this area would be in order. God help me.
Or the color of your skin, or what planet you'd be on
Would your mind be strong, would your eyes be blue or brown
Whether daddy would be rich, or if momma stuck around at all" I didn't choose my gene pool, or to be born in a country with free public school, or to have white skin which gave me an advantage in that school system, or to have a dad who could pay for college. Not to discount the work that I (and everyone else with a college degree) had to do to graduate, but the opportunity itself was a gift that not everybody gets. Second, the reasoning abilities I have could be gone in a second. One stray bullet, one stray blood clot, one stray lightning bolt, and I could be looking at a life with much less ability to think, or articulate, or both. Third, the abilities I have, I have not always used well. I have hurt my wife by arguing to win. I have been unkind (most recently in a debate on facebook these last few days in the comments on Small Stones day...10, I think it was). So, to recap, I can't take credit for any ability to reason, every moment that I retain that ability is a gift, and I have misused that ability on multiple occasions. So yes, a little more humility in this area would be in order. God help me.
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