Pride & Consequence

Ever since we arrived to Spain it has occurred to me that apparently I have way more pride than I was aware of.  I’m sure God will continue to reveal that to me but He already has so many times.

Every day I fail at language here.  Every. Single. Day. You know why? Because if I don’t get knocked down on a regular basis I can get a big head about me.  I just didn’t know I needed to be knocked down every day.

However, God uses that in beautiful ways.  I talked with our regional director about a year ago and said I felt I had a different personality here in Spain.  I was more timid and shy bc of my lack of language ability.

That changed the other day.  I’m becoming more of my ‘regular self’ in terms of talking with others and being more outgoing.  I talked to a couple of taxistas in Madrid and then I talked to a complete stranger in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep and decided to grab a burger since it was the weekend.  I asked him to help explain something from the book of Proverbs to me, can you imagine?!

It’s comforting to see some of the ‘old me’ shine through in terms of personality.  Simultaneously, I don’t want to see the ‘old me’ in terms of pride and other ways. We are being remade on a daily basis, the old has gone the new has come.  Our pastor of our house church here pointed out that those verbs are present continual. As in, the old is being passed away and the new is being made.

So, if we want to become humble like Christ, for some of us that means being humiliated.  Some people can just become humble bc they submit to Christ on a regular basis. Then there are others who need to get knocked down repeatedly to learn their lesson.  And then learn the same lesson again, and again, and again… :) Christ uses that though, doesn’t He?

He never gives up on us even though we have stubborn hearts that continually try to shut Him out until we get to the end of our rope and realize once again that we’re nothing without Him.  Many people wonder how the Israelites kept going away from God in the Old Testament but I’ve always related somewhat too well to them I suppose.

Thankfully, I’ve got a wonderful Christ who loved me enough to die for my sins and reconcile me to God.  May we make much of Him this week during Holy Week and every week. Amen.