Pride. It’s something that all of us deal with at some point in our lives. C.S. Lewis once described pride as “The Greatest Sin” ascribing it as the root of many other sins (i.e. murder, adultery, stealing, etc.).
Whenever I think about pride in this way I am always reminded of the Parable of the Sower from Luke 8:5-8a
“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hunderedfold.”
Pride is the birds, the thorns, the things that come into our lives and choke the Godliness out of it. Pride swoops in and plucks what is meant for good and turns our minds toward evil. Toward sin.
C.H. Spurgeon reminds us that “superficial feeling is often joined to inward hardness of heart, and a lively impression of the word, is not always a lasting one.”
My friend Nick and I (Erick) talk about this a lot. As worship leaders, pride always seems to creep its way in. Nick would always joke with me that, “whenever I feel pride creeping it’s way in, I always know that I can go play basketball and get humbled again!”
God will always put things in our path to remind us that our pride is folly, misplaced, and absolutely incorrect.
Pastor Bob Coy reminds us of this by saying, “Listen, if you ever sense yourself being led down the path of pride, if you ever feel the need to reset your heart so you can see yourself from God’s perspective, if you ever want to deal a death-blow to your pride … then the cross is where you need to fix your focus.”
The Cross IS our reminder that we have absolutely nothing to boast or brag about. It’s where we’re humbly reminded that we were so wretched and helpless that God had to send His son, an innocent man, to suffer and die on our behalf.
So it goes without saying that the solution to deflating our pride is to crucify it. Put our pride up on the Cross and be reminded of the Cross.
Think about it. Has pride ever crept it’s way into your life? How do you humble yourself? Do you have a “quick fix” like playing basketball? 🙂
E + C 
Good post. This is a somewhat related question, I hope. I agree with Lewis that pride is the greatest sin. However, one thing comes to mind in terms of pride and leadership. Whether it’s in CRU or in a church, the leaders (which will be you guys) need to have confidence in their own God-given knowledge and abilities, and in the decisions they make. So my question is, how do we separate leadership and pride, and even if decisions as leaders come from the most humble of places, sometimes even those are considered prideful, how do leaders set an example in outwardly displaying humility in decisions and actions? In other words, how does one navigate the difficulties of being a humble leader without letting pride get in the way both internally and in how others perceive decisions and actions?