A Problem With Arrogance

Growing up often calls for changes.

Attitudes and views held can be challenged and discarded. Relationships often take a different path some ending as others begin. Lifestyles may alter along with income and location.

There is nothing necessarily wrong with these developments in and of themselves. Problems can arise, however, if arrogance begins to emerge.

It doesn’t take much to be arrogant. I grew up in a small town and spent the best part of 18 years there. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but all I knew came from that experience of being in a small town with a small group of people that I knew with a small time approach to life. It was all I knew and I didn’t have the urge to know anything else.

After my A-levels, I was successful in getting to university, but that meant moving away from home, the small town experience and everything I knew. Part of my university life involved commuting and working in London. So with the new world of university and another new one of big city life, my eyes were opened to a completely different way of living. That changed me and it changed how I viewed my old life.

I noticed how backwards and insular it was. I saw it was holding me back. I was a lot better than that existence now. Seeing things from this new perspective lead to me pouring scorn on the old life. Not overtly, but subtly. Arrogance set in, nice and neatly. I was considerably better than them. I didn’t need them.

It’s to my shame that this mentality stuck with me in one form or another for neatly ten years. The process of repentance began when God took me back to the place for a visit and I recognised how toxic my attitude was to Him. It was disgusting because it was puffing up myself and forgetting the vital life lessons I got from home. It disrespected what He did in the days of small beginning.

A problem with arrogance is how it blinds us. We no longer see properly what He did. We no longer see properly what He is doing. Worse still, we will not see where He’s leading, where we should be going. A problem with arrogance is that in the blindness there’s usually a stumble or something far worse.

It’s refreshing then to get the loving rebukes of God to snap you out of your arrogance and humble you.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden