I'm just pumping out these blogs like mad, aren't I? This one involves what is called the pridecycle. Like a unicycle, a bicycle, or the coolest of all of them, the tricycle, it involves wheels and pedalling. The difference in the pridecycle is that it has eleven wheels, two retro-style fins, a nice padded seat and a cup-holder. Yes, you've all probably realized by now that I seldom take my first paragraph seriously. Don't worry, I'll get to the point of all this soon.

The pride cycle has nothing to do with wheels, in case you hadn't guessed, but rather with two states of heart and mind that seem go round and round. These two states are called pride and humility.

Pride starts from birth. Humility starts from rebirth. When we are born again in Christ, it would be nice to be able to say that pride goes away forever, but in my case at least, it's always lurking in the shadows like the beast in this picture that I brought in from the bowels of my computer hard drive.

We are walking along the straight and narrow when pride sidles up beside us and begins to whisper in our ear, "You've been doing very well in your walk with God, haven't you?" 

"You're right!" we think. "I've been doing very well in my walk with God."

Pride shuffles a little closer and says "You've been doing a lot of good things. You haven't been doing a lot of bad things. Not like that person you know."

We then think "Of course not! I would never do the bad things that THEY are doing."

The trek off the path has begun. We have bought the lie that the good we have done is by our own strength. We begin to think ourselves better than those people that do drugs and get drunk and sleep around. Those things aren't a good idea, don't get me wrong, but they are not the problem. The problem is sin. We ALL do it. When we are in the state of pride, we start to judge people and condemn them for their actions. We also make excuses for the sins we catch ourself doing. "It's not really that bad." and "At least I'm not doing what THAT person's doing." Since we're doing so well, we read the bible less and pray less. We've got things under control.

That beast has us.

It is only when we realize how despicable our thoughts and actions are that we can crawl into the presence of God, broken and humble, repent of our pride and beg His forgiveness. God then picks us up, sets us back on our feet, and continues to guide us down the straight and narrow. It still blows my mind how God can still love me after all the times He's had to pick me up. 

It is during those times of humility that we feel the love of God the strongest. It is during those times when we realize how weak we are that God can work through us and reveal Himself in powerful ways.

Then, pride sidles up beside us...

Are we going to listen this time?