my pride

I've been thinking a lot lately about my pride, my arrogance and my self centeredness (if such a word exists). In his book, The Pursuit of God, Tozer talks candidly about all words beginning with "self" - they define our generation and the Western Culture at large. It's about me. Plain. Simple. Me.

I suppose what got me thinking was a housing tour I took the other day. We were walking through an condo owned by a former General in the US Air Force. On one wall were pictures, plaques, awards, dedications, and the like - all about this General. To be honest, it was pretty cool. This guy was decorated and obviously proud of what's he done. It got me thinking though.

His daughter called it the "Ode to Me" wall. How true...? I do the same thing. I dont' have a wall like that in my house per se (since I don't even own a house) but I have plenty of those walls erected in my mind. There is no doubt. It is all about me, all the time. For those of you who read "Blue Like Jazz" (a phenomenal book, by the way), Donald Miller talks about the same thing - KDON, all Don, all the time. For me it's KBPP, all Pop, all the time.

I'm not the only one. Our culture supports it, encourages and thrives on it. But, one day it won't. One day I won't. Our Lord and God tells us so in plain, ordinary words. See below - it's true, it's real, it's going to happen.

The Day of the Lord from Isaiah 2

"You have abandoned your people,
the house of Jacob.
They are full of superstitions from the East;
they practice divination like the Philistines
and clasp hands with pagans.

Their land is full of silver and gold;
there is no end to their treasures.
Their land is full of horses;
there is no end to their chariots.

Their land is full of idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their fingers have made.

So man will be brought low
and mankind humbled—
do not forgive them. [a]

Go into the rocks,
hide in the ground
from dread of the LORD
and the splendor of his majesty!

The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled
and the pride of men brought low;
the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

The LORD Almighty has a day in store
for all the proud and lofty,
for all that is exalted
(and they will be humbled),

for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty,
and all the oaks of Bashan,

for all the towering mountains
and all the high hills,

for every lofty tower
and every fortified wall,

for every trading ship
and every stately vessel.

The arrogance of man will be brought low
and the pride of men humbled;
the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,

and the idols will totally disappear.

Men will flee to caves in the rocks
and to holes in the ground
from dread of the LORD
and the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to shake the earth.

In that day men will throw away
to the rodents and bats
their idols of silver and idols of gold,
which they made to worship.

They will flee to caverns in the rocks
and to the overhanging crags
from dread of the LORD
and the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to shake the earth.

Stop trusting in man,
who has but a breath in his nostrils.
Of what account is he?"