Ever seen a Big Horn Ram spar with another? It's am impressive and powerful display of what a man should be no matter his color, shape or size. Strong in himself simply as a man. I'm not talking all macho, fluff but able to stand his ground free from fear and intimidation. The kind I'm talking has nothing to do with physical strength or stature.AHO Authentic, Honest, Open
These are three words that I am growing to appreciate more and more.
Authentic, are you being really you? NO MATTER what that means are you being authentic?
Honest, are you being honest about your authenticity? Are you lying about hidden things, covering up who you are, what you struggle with, putting on a facade to impress etc.? Even honest about victories or good things? Often pride will cover itself with false humility by not letting the glory of God shine in your life!
Open, are you open to letting others lead you, help you and support you in your needs and desires? Open to correction, encouragement and love? Open to non conforming ways? Open to adventure and trusting God to lead you wherever He wants?
Every man is an equal. A man is simply that, a man. I have recently come into relationship with a group of authentic and great men that are challenging me in ways I've not been so in awhile!
For that I thank God!
11 comments:
"Often pride will cover itself with false humility by not letting the glory of God shine in your life!"
Not sure i agree with this part. God calls his children to be humble before God and before each other. False humility is pretending to put the focus on God and others, but inwardly the focus is still on yourself. It sounds like you're saying that we should just be blatant and open with our pride. I disagree. As Christians, I think we should strive to not be proud at all. Instead, we should strive to be humble. For it is only through humility that God is truly honored. We need to realize that any success or glory that we might be able to grasp as humans is only through God:
"I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own powers. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man."
--John Ruskin
But I agree with most of everything else you said!
~Pastor Carpenter
Pastor Carpenter,
Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. I think maybe you've misunderstood my point. Sometimes people are not able to truly walk in "greatness" even greatness for God, because of false humility, which in the end is pride. Pride because it's an unholy focus on self, not wanting to be the focus, not letting God move mightily because you fear being looked upon as arrogant. The world doesn't need more "weenies for Jesus" as I once heard a man refer to himself, this is not true humility. True humility is authentic, being who you are meant to be and giving all credit and glory to the one who made you that way! Wouldn't it be refreshing if we had more men in the world that could say in true humility "follow me as I follow Christ" and not be ashamed of their victories?? Does this make sense? God's man isn't modeled in Mr. Rogers, but rather Paul. (Though I've read Mr.Rogers had quite a background, Ranger or something like that)that's not my point. I've seen men that are borderline "wimp" in every way but think they are being humble by being doormats for all to walk on. Jesus was a studd and he knew who he was and the power he had, but he restrained that power for the Glory of God. Restraint is beautiful, being a wimp is not. Does that make sense?
p.s. I wasn't indicating you are a wimp or were saying men should be, I've just seen "humility" modeled this way and it's just so far from what God intends for men!
The only thing I disagree with is the idea that false humility is something that stands in the way of walking with God. False humility is a mask that covers pride. When you remove this mask, you expose a self-centered focus on one's self, which our Bible clearly tells us is wrong.
On the one hand, I agree that biblical humility isn't about being a "doormat." As Christians, we strive to be respected, but who respects a doormat? Humility is not the same as weakness! As Christians, we must be steadfast in our beliefs and not be afraid or ashamed to stand up for them. (Just as you said.)
On the other hand, I believe that as we allow God to work through our lives to do great things, we must strive to keep the focus on God. (Just like you said.) As we do good works for our Lord, we keep in mind that we are working exclusively for His glory and not our own. And we keep in mind that it is only through His blessings that we are able to achieve anything at all. And we keep in mind that there is something divine in every human, so we are not better than anyone else. As humans, it is very natural for us to seek credit from others for our good works or to think that we are superior to others who's works might seem inferior, but this only undermines His glory by putting the focus on ourselves. And by doing this, we give people the impression that Christians are prideful and self-centered, which makes us look like hypocrites and undermines God's plan for His people. (Matthew 6:5 talks about this.)
As Christians, we do not strive for weakness. It is a common misconception that Christians should be weak. At the same time, we do we strive for pride. Rather, we strive for something that is perhaps in the middle of these two.
But I think we're basically on the same page here. Thanks for the reply. :)
~PC
Allow me to clarify what I was trying to say in my last post. Contrary to what I might have suggested in my last post, false humility itself is indeed a problem. But the real problem that prevents us from walking with God isn't false humility, it's the pride and self-centeredness that lies underneath the false humility. Simply removing the mask of false humility will not allow us to walk with God. Instead, it will only expose self-centeredness and arrogance! And it is these things that we must fix. As I was saying in my last post, we must strive for something between weakness and pride.
I think we're basically on the same page here. Thanks for the discussion.
~PC
Hey, I hope I didn't offend you with my last posts. I wasn't trying to call you arrogant or anything. I basically agree with everything you've posted. The only thing I disagree with is the idea that false humility by itself could prevent someone from walking with God. False humility only covers up pride, and pride, as stated clearly in our Bible, is wrong. False humility does not prevent us from walking with God as much as the pride that lies underneath the false humility! As Christians, we must strive to be humble. (Not always an easy thing to do for us humans.) But humility does not mean weakness. We can be humble and at the same time be strong in our beliefs. It's about maintaining a happy medium between two extremes. I agree that we should not be afraid to allow God to work through our lives, but we must maintain humility all the while. I agree that many Christians make the mistake of thinking that being humble means being a weenie.
I hope I didn't offend. Thanks for the discussion! I enjoy being encouraged to think.
~PC
no offense at all. your last comment is probably as close to what I was saying as anything and your right, false humility only covers up pride. good thoughts..
"Often pride will cover itself with false humility by not letting the glory of God shine in your life!"
The statement above from your original post was the only thing that bothered me. Perhaps I misunderstand what you meant by this. The above sentence would make more sense to me if you substituted the word "fear" or "weakness" in place of "false humility." Are you saying in the above sentence that we must not be afraid to let God work through us? If so, I agree! What troubles me is that it sounds like you are saying that we should not be afraid to be proud. It is with this idea that I would have to disagree.
Thanks! I love your site!
~PC
Hey, sorry to post so much on this site. I'm really glad I came across it, however, because it started me thinking on the subject of pride more deeply than I ever have before.
God does call his children to practice humility, which is the opposite of pride. However, I think that some forms of pride are actually acceptable. For example, when we work hard and accomplish something great or when someone close to us achieves something great, I think it is both natural and good to feel a certain degree of pride. But we have to be careful not to take these feelings of pride too far. Once we start feeling that our successes make us superior to others or we forget about the significance of God in our successes, then we run into trouble. Like I said before, it's a balance between two extremes.
I think it's human nature for Christians to fall into the trap of pride from time to time. During our daily struggles in our walk with God, we must not become prideful of ourselves and start viewing ourselves as more righteous than others. I did some missionary work a few years ago in Africa, and during the course of that work I quickly became irritated with the attitude demonstrated by some of the missionaries, who clearly viewed themselves as being very righteous for devoting their lives to the work of the Lord. It was very hypocritical, but it was also very human. As Christians, I think we need to be careful not to view ourselves as superior to others or to maintain a condescending attitude towards others. This only repulses people away from the church, which is obviously not what God wants. All too often I have met with people who adamantly reject Christianity due to the hypocrisy of the church.
As Christians, we need to stand strong in our beliefs. But I think Christians in general would benefit by being more accepting and respectful of people who maintain beliefs that are either contrary to or not in perfect agreement with their own. Christians need to be firm in their beliefs, but they also need to be tolerant and respectful of those who disagree with them. (This doesn't mean Christians should compromise their beliefs, of course.) It seems hypocritical to me that some people claiming to be Christians are also the least tolerant people you'll ever meet. They arrogantly and condescendingly proclaim that they are right and that everyone who disagrees with them is obviously wrong. And if you try to have a conversation with them about their beliefs, they won't really listen to what you have to say with an open mind. It is this kind of behavior--this "religious pride"--that is wrong. On the one hand, we Christians need to stand firm in our beliefs, but on the other hand, we Christians also need to be respectful of others who disagree with us. And in the end, I'd be willing to bet that Christianity would get a lot further in this world if Christians practiced more tolerance and respect for others who live outside their particular sect of Christianity as well as for others who live outside the Christian religion altogether.
"Often pride will cover itself with false humility by not letting the glory of God shine in your life!"
In regards to the above statement from your original post, I think what you are saying is that we should not be afraid to let God work through us. I disagree with the choice of words, however, because it sounds like you are saying that we should not be afraid to be proud. Instead of "pride" I would have said something like "God's ability to work in our lives." And instead of "false humility" I would have said something like "weakness." Is this what you intended to say?
Thanks again for encouraging me to think. I'm going to explore this topic further on my own. I'll have to check back in a few months.
~PC
joe,
all i'm really saying is that sometimes we are actually walking in pride by being falsely humble, it's still all about you if you are thinking about you, worried about others perception of you, not being ok with others feeling the weight of God's presence in your life or his power or His love or kindness or stearness etc. etc.
I'm simply saying that sometimes in an effort to be "meek" we are weak and we are proud because we still think it's about us. So we label our self centeredness with words like "I'm a weenie for Jesus." like we talked about.
I just want to see people be authentic and if that's broken be genuine and real in it, if it's crazy high on the joy of Jesus, let it shine!!! You don't light a candle and put it under a bushel!
The experience I had at www.edgeventure.org "not at all what you think it is by the website etc. we were not even allowed to say what we do for our jobs, so it's not about ego etc. it's about being a man created by God for God and living such that others want to be all they were made to be too.
Interesting idea. Thanks for explaining.
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