I used to work with a dear friend of whom, I truly believed, lived more for how he reacted to situations than he did what he would say or physically do in those situations. I do not think he understands how much of an impression that made on me. He always had a smile on his face that you could tell was just waiting to brighten up your day. I do not remember how many times I went into work, feeling down and frustrated, and when I talked with him my day got instantly better. He constantly reminded me that what I was dealing with was just life. It is nothing to fret about. I did not want to believe him at the beginning because I felt deserved better than what I was going through. But, after time I began to see it his way.
I understand that not everyone I know is a Christian so what I am about to say might not make sense, but I am going to say it anyways. I do not believe that there are problems in our lives only failures to accept the life God has ordained for our life. In a nutshell, it's a pride problem. Now the word 'problem(s)' has many different meanings in our world today so I will try and define what I mean. Problem: when we think something or someone should have gone or done something different that we planned. I believe we would call that a problem. I will use a personal experience to hopefully try to make what I just said a little clearer. Most everyone who knows me, knows that I love Converse shoes. I own about 20+ pair and there isn't a day that passes where I do not wear a pair of them. I had a little extra cash in my budget this past month and I felt like spending that money on a new pair of Chuck Taylor shoes. So while I was in the mall, I decided to head to the shoe store to see if they had a pair that I wanted. My geekiness kicked in the moment I stepped foot in that store. They had some Green Lantern chucks and I wanted them. I asked the clerk to see if they had a pair in size 11. Of course, they didn't. I was bummed to say the least. I am sure that not many of you can associate with my freak addiction to Converse shoes, but I am sure that we all have had a situation like that. Many of use would view that as a problem. So of you all may get upset and become grumpy because of a situation like that.
Let me make something clear here, there is nothing in our life that is not ordained by God. Whether or not you choose to believe in Him, in my mind, does not change the fact that He does exist and does ordain your life. To go back to what I said earlier the only reason that something may seem like it is not going our way is because we believe that we deserve something different. That's prideful. Proverbs 13:10 "By pride cometh only contention; But with the well-advised is wisdom" (ASV). The moment we believe something should be different than what is it, we sin. You may say Nathan, that is awfully harsh. That is because we have become so immune and numb to the issue of pride. There is not one good thing that can come from pride. Let's continue to dig deeper here.
I have worked in a customer service related job for six years now. I have learned many things during my time there. One of which is how utterly prideful people are. It never ceases to amaze me how many people will drive back to the store, typically frustrated and ready to share a piece of their mind with me, over the lack of a $0.39 discount or coupon. Maybe it is just me, but that boggles my mind. Sure, I can understand that need to get the $0.39 discount, but the frustrated part does not make sense to me. Why is that discount worth getting frustrated over? Because people think that they are worth and deserve that discount. They believe that they are entitled to that discount. They believe that they have the right to get mad at someone because of the failure to give them that discount. Pride is something that we have become all to accustom to being ok with. The littlest thing nowadays sets people off. Maybe something at work changes and you have to tend to a job a little later than you were planning, does that give you the right to get mad? No. Maybe someone says something to you, or maybe who they are upsets you, and you get mad at them. Do you have the right to do so? No. There is no reason to get upset over things that we cannot control. But yet, some people think they have the right to do so and after doing that very thing day after day, they do it habitually.
There is an easy answer as to why people are prideful. We do not have a big enough view of Who God is. Poof, there you go. At least within the Christian realm we have to understand something, the only reason we sin is because we choose to sin. God does not make us sin. Satan does not make us sin. We choose to sin. We choose to not trust in the plan for our life that God has ordained eternity past. We choose to believe that something should have happened differently. We choose to believe that life should be different that what it is. Any thought in our minds that is in any shape or form contrary to fully trusting in the sovereign will of God is sin, and of our doing. Not His. His way is perfect. You may say to me, His way is hard. But, I would ask you, what is hard? Life is life. In actuality there are no hard times. It is all good and perfect because God ordained it. But, within our selfish, prideful, and sinful minds and hearts we have begun to believe that there are hard times and problems or flaws with the life that God has ordained for us. That simply is not the case, sorry.
The problem of pride has bled into our Christian life all to quickly. We think, that because we are saved and supposedly living our life for God, that it should be easy or at least easier than a worldly life. That is a slippery slope to begin going down. Sure, it may seem peachy and perfect from the top but as we begin to go down it we see what lies for us down at the bottom. Destruction.
After standing back and watching for some time, I believe that there are several reasons that this issue of pride has come to be within the church. To many times there are pastors, teachers, and authors, that preach the Christian life as easy. "We have God on our side, what could possibly go wrong?" The truth is, nothing could go wrong, but there are times that are difficult. Please, I urge you, don't confuse difficult for problematic. There is a difference. Sure, the Christian life is hard. It is full of ups and downs, confusion, hurt from others, and so on. But that does not mean there is a problem with the Christian life. Just look at Christ's life. Sure He had hard times, times where His faith was tested, but He still succeeded; He still believed. Not because of His Godly-Power, but because He chose to have faith in His Father that His way was perfect. The second reason I believe that we can possibly think that there are problems within the church is because we look at the world. It looks so relaxed and fun. If chaotic, hopeless, and deadly, are what you call relaxed and fun than there are others issues that need to be sorted through.
The last reason why I believe that pride has slipped into the church is a big one. It is the lack of the Gospel being preached in church and christian's lackadaisical approach to studying scripture for themselves. I am confident that if we preach what scripture truly says in church, our world would be rocked. I do not know how many times I have talked with backslidden Christians who have gotten mad at God and church over issues that either are not preached on in church, or that they are to lazy to search out themselves. They think that their life is to hard, that God certainly does not have the right to allow them to go through what they are going through, or that Scripture does not reference the hard time that they are experiencing. That simply is not true. What they do not see at the time is that they do not want to be proven wrong. They want to be mad. They have chosen to let pride dictate everything in their life, whether or not they see that as being the cause. It is so easy to do, I understand that, but that is not a justification for being prideful and doubting God's path for you.
The problem of pride is typically fixed in two ways. First off, the mind. The prideful thoughts that immediately jump into our heads is because of a thought process that we allow ourselves to go down. Now, it may have happened so much in the past that we do not see it happening. However, I am sure that if you ask someone to point out when they think you are going down that road they will be able to spot it. You might be surprised how often it happens. Secondly, the fix is as mentioned above - get a bigger picture of Who God is.
It is inevitable that as people on this earth as well as Christians, we will encounter hard times in our life. Almost everyday we are faced with a opportunity to respond to someone or something correctly. After all, we aren't just dolls doing things that we can't control. Our reactions to situations are controllable. They are our job to make sure that they are reacted to properly.
I realize that I have taken many different roads throughout this post, but if there are three things that I can get across, these would be it. One, you cannot blame your mood or how your day goes on anyone but yourself. You control how you respond to people, you control your mood. No one else. Secondly, when someone treats you unfairly take a step back and understand that this is what God has ordained for you. Therefore, the situation is not bad, it is perfect. Thirdly and lastly, God love and grace for you are everlasting. Sure, I understand that we will fail this topic during our lifetime. We might fail it everyday, but God's grace is there to forgive you each time. He does not expect us to be perfect. He is acquainted with the troubles that we face. All He asks is that we rest in Him and seek Him daily. Once we begin to do that, our so called problems begin to dwindle away.
Wow man. Got me thinking.
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