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Pride
is an ugly malady. Those infected are easily spotted in a
crowd. Its symptoms do not affect the body so much as the mind
and the behavior of the victim, though we often describe the
psychological effects of pride in physiological terms. A proud
man becomes “puffed up” we say. It’s not a pretty site.
What’s particularly pernicious about pride is that it is
often hidden to the victim, while obvious to those around him.
The Big Head. An inflated ego has a curious way of changing
the look of a man. It’s not that his actual appearance
changes so much as his behavior. He adopts a habit of putting
himself in front all the time. He becomes skilled in the art
of attracting and welcoming the attention of others. He seems
to be preening, strutting, parading about, “playing the
peacock” as we say. And like the peacock, he is jealous of
his turf. A proud man despises nothing more than to lose the
spotlight.
The Running Mouth. The proud person has trouble keeping quiet.
The conversation always has a way of coming back to him—what
he knows, who he knows, what he did, how he would handle the
situation. And he cannot stand for the conversation to turn
away from himself or to be dominated by another party. So he
jumps in with clever means and renewed vigor to bring the
discussion back around to himself. “That reminds of the time
I…”
The “Poor Me” Syndrome. Self-pity is a form of pride,
though not often identified as such. The man who boasts of his
ailments and of his being neglected by others is no different
than he who boasts of his abilities and his superiority over
his peers. Both are self-inflated. One has exaggerated his
advantages, the other his disadvantages. Both men think too
much of themselves; too little of others. They suffer from a
common ailment—pride.
The “Humble Me” Affectation. The proud man hates to be
outdone in humility as much as in anything else. If he does a
kind deed, everyone knows. If he has made a sacrifice, you can
be sure there is an audience. There is no glory greater than
martyrdom for the proud man—as long as it’s first-class,
front-page, neon-lit martyrdom. When a man tells you how
humble he is, or how humble others think he is, or goes out of
his way to show you how humble he is—one gets the impression
that he’s campaigning. Nothing makes me more suspicious of a
man’s humility than when he tries so hard to make me think
him humble. I’m more apt to think him proud.
There are other ways in which pride shows itself. However it
appears, it’s unattractive. It’s unappealing. It turns
people off. It drives people away. What’s more—it is an
offense to God. “God is opposed to the proud, but gives
grace to the humble” (1 Pet 5:5). The cure to pride is to
learn to be a servant, to admit your own limitations, to be
satisfied with how God made you, to be more interested in
others than in yourself, to glory in the achievements of
others, to genuinely seek their betterment rather than your
own exaltation. If you’re busy thinking of others, you’ll
not have so much time to be impressed with yourself.
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