God wants us to take responsibility and great care of what
he has entrusted us with. This can be seen through the parable of the talents,
Matthew 25:14-30. Those who use what is given to them to its fullest potential
will be greatly rewarded. Those who
waste or do nothing with what is given to them will ultimately suffer the
consequences. Taking pride and finding
meaning in what we are entrusted with can be a significant motivating factor in
achieving great things. What happens, though when our pride gets out of control
and actually inhibits what we are trying to accomplish and our relationship
with God?
To understand this better it is helpful to distinguish
between taking pride in something and having a prideful attitude. Taking pride
in something means that we are staking a personal investment in our work and
what we are involved in. We have a strong desire to do good works and feel a
sense of accomplishment when our investments of time and talents accomplish
goals and create positive outcomes. This is the type of pride that God wants us
to partake in. He wants us to invest ourselves fully in what he has designed
for us. A prideful attitude, on the other hand, does not take pride in what has
been accomplished, but holds pride in oneself and one’s individual abilities.
This type of pride can lead to arrogance and a self-serving behavior rather
than a God-serving attitude. This type of pride can create barriers to
accomplishing what God has designed for each of us and ultimately our
relationship with Him. We begin to feel like we don’t need God and that we are
good enough to manage things on our own.
I can attest to this feeling of pride as I was once there. I
had been working in the insurance industry for almost 10 years at the time.
During that time I had accumulated numerous sales and service awards and was at
the top of my game. I began to develop an attitude of pride in myself and what
a good sales person I was, rather taking pride in the work that I was doing. I
had begun to look for another job, as I was tired of my current one, and I went
on an interview with an employment agency. My interviewer told me that my
credentials were impressive, which of course boosted my pride, even further,
but that she had some concerns about me personally. She told me that I
projected an attitude of arrogance and superiority and that I needed to tone it
down if I wanted to get a job with any of their employers. I left the interview
stunned as though someone had slapped me in the face. What exactly had I
become? Something certainly that was not what God wanted me to be.
The whole experience forced me to look at my behavior,
examine what had happened and why I ended up being where I was. After much
introspection and soul searching, I determined that in my ride to glory, I
stopped including God in what I was doing. I had begun to rely on myself and
not him for guidance and inspiration. I
had become a prideful, self-absorbed, and a one dimensional person. I would
love to say that after that revelation that everything changed for me
immediately and I transformed my thinking. However, it took a few more years
and losing a high paying job as well as many of my material possessions for my
behavior and its consequences to really sink in and make sense.
Today, 20 years later, I still continue to work in the
insurance industry. Although I don’t receive as many awards as I used to , I
feel more happy and in tune with God. I
don’t feel the need to constantly one up myself or other people. I am content
with where I am in my career and am able to focus on the work in front of me
and glorifying God in that work. I no
longer feel the need to dwell in the presence of my prior prideful self, but
find comfort in taking pride in fulfilling God’s will for me.
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