Blogs are interesting things. My wife has noticed a common thread among blogs that she has visited—the tendency for the people who write the blogs to present themselves in an impossibly positive light. My wife has begun calling these the I'm-Better-Than-You-Are blogs.
Pride is spiritual cancer; it eats the very possibility of love or contentment, or even common sense.
— C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)
Another common theme among these blogs is that they are written by those who profess Christianity. This is of particular concern because, as Christians, we should possess a spirit of humility, recognizing the old adage, "There, but for the grace of God, go I." And recognizing that we were saved, not because of any good in us, but because of the goodness of God who saved us in spite of our sinfulness and inability.
I recently read the following admonition from Charles Haddon Spurgeon in his book Your Available Power:
The Holy Spirit will not bless us in order to sustain our pride. Is it not possible that we may be wishing for a great blessing that we may be thought great men? This will hinder our success; the string of the bow is out of place, and the arrow will veer aside. What does God do with men that are proud? Does He exalt them? I think not.
Herod made an eloquent oration, and he put on a dazzling, silver robe that glistened in the sun. When the people saw his garments and listened to his charming voice, they cried, "It is the voice of a god, and not of a man" (Acts 12:22); but the Lord smote him, and he was eaten by worms.
Worms have a prescriptive right to proud flesh; when we get very mighty and very big, the worms expect to make a meal of us. "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16:18). Keep humble if you want the Spirit of God with you. The Holy Spirit takes no pleasure in the inflated oratory of the proud; how can He? Would you have Him sanction bombast? "Walk humbly with thy God" (Mic. 6:8), for you cannot walk with Him in any other way; and if you do not walk with Him, your walking will be vain.
Blogs may become a curse, if we allow our pride to spill over onto the pages. May God protect us from ourselves.
Further reading:
My father has posted A Proud Church in a Proud Society - Rev. 3:14-22 on his Navigators blog.
The blogs that I call "I'm better than you" are not the ones who try to excel in what they present in their blog, it's the ones who spew their "wisdom".
ReplyDeleteOne such blog is from a woman who can't understand why she isn't making friends within her church when, according to her blog post, she is willing to "pour out [her] wisdom" to these women.
When the women aren't ready to seek her wisdom and "friendship," she posted that she believes they are unregenerate. When they do accept her friendship, she states that when she finds problems she "confronts" her friends. In one such case, after much discussion (and the friend still disagreed), the friend finally had to tell her that she wanted to end this confrontation since she had to think on many things before further discussion.
The "wise" blogger then posted about this issue for all their mutual friends to read and take sides while the friend in the post was still trying to come to terms with the issue.
The sad part is that all I have read is from her view and in her words. Can you imagine what the other side of the story is?
I am all for excellence in blogging and I love going to blogs that help others along the path of life. What I find offensive are the blogs that tell others "if you follow my lead your life will be more Godly." Only by following God will be become more like Him.
The notion of pride as "spiritual cancer" is very powerful. Thank you for this post. It makes me think. Peggy
ReplyDeleteVery refreshing ! It would explain why sometimes reading some blogs make me feel heavier instead of inspiring me...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, it is true we don't agree so often, so I may just enjoy the fact that I have someone on "my side" on the modesty topic for once... ;o ) Glad to see that some Christians are more peaceful in front of nudity. I was starting to worry...
Lilith - I'm afraid I shut down the entire conversation on modesty. I hope it didn't cause too much trouble.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing is that this post on my blog was written two days ago and was posted well before I read the modesty post. But I think my post addresses what I saw there.
I don't doubt that blogger's dedication to Christ. What bothered me was the fact that the modesty post was very judgmental in nature and did not make an attempt to share Jesus Christ with someone who was deemed not to know Jesus.
The simple fact is that we are all sinners—not reaching the holy standard of God. None of us is any better than another and we should not try to present ourselves as better than others. The only way any of us may arrive at heaven is by understanding that we can do nothing but throw ourselves on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who gave his life to save sinners from their sins.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this (the faith) is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Lilith, don't ever feel that you are less than anyone who writes any blog (or more than they are either). I hope that you see Christ for who he is—not the false Jesus who still-sinful Christians present. I don't know the state of your soul, but I hope that you and I will be able to laugh together about how clueless we were back in the day when we get to meet face to face in heaven some day.