Leave it to the Greeks!

Leave it to the Greeks! I heard a sermon the other day on pride. Just as there are several connotations to our word “love” [exquisitely outlined by CS Lewis in his priceless monograph “The Four Loves”], there are two
understandings of “pride.” There’s nothing wrong with being “proud” of my
accomplishments, the preacher explained, as long as I recognize that the gifts I’ve been given with which to do the work are acts of grace. That pride is “schema,“ from which we get scheme, meaning to arrange in advance, to organize—and no negative connotation was intended by the ancient Athenians. The other, “hubris,” means overbearing pride or presumption, fostering arrogance and greed, and definitely not of the Lord. However, after feeling somewhat smug that I don’t show much hubris, in digging deeper I found that the only pride I ought to permit myself to feel [much less exhibit] is really a profound sense of gratitude that I have been privileged to use my gifts for his glory. It always comes back to that, and somehow it always should!

He Does It!

One of the bennies of growing older, and especially in growing older in the Lord, is a sense of serenity [read that “peace”] which Jesus promises us, but which eluded me for years. It was only through interiorizing and accepting the extravagant, undeserved love with which He showers me, that I could begin to grasp the fact that He makes things come out right NO
MATTER HOW TERRIBLE THEY SEEMED AT THE TIME. It was only after decades of proof, and an honest effort to review and admit this subtle but uncanny trend in my life, that the light of reason dawned on my thick arrogant German skull. [A corollary: if I gave up my bitterness and resentments—by praying and recreating my gratitude list, among other time-teated techniques—I cleared the way for the grace it took for the Lord to change my white-knuckled anxieties.] Then came the process of
learning from the past, of understanding that He’ll keep doing that IF I keep turning things over to him. “Let go and let God” did not come easily, but what a relief to ditch the stress of micro-managing of all my affairs, and a good portion of yours, too! A paradox: only through surrender can I gain serenity. Wow! As the kids on Teen Encounter used to yell, “Yea, God!“