Vicissitudes and Victories

Pride

I have been thinking about the nature of pride tonight, and especially about how this ugly beast rears its head in my own life. If I let myself think too hard and not feel enough, I can easily start to feel superior to other people because I know more than them. I think that many of us in academic fields of study start to see society hubristically because we feel that the people around us don't understand as much about the world and its ways as we do. This tendency permeates throughout the Mormon community as well. Many well-informed Latter-day Saints look down on other members because they supposedly have a more shallow knowledge of the gospel and its principles. At times I just feel frustrated with all intellectual pride, for when we are learned we think we are wise and we hearken not unto the counsels of the Lord.

Yet by judging them for being judgmental, I am no better than they are. And I'm not, though sometimes the natural man inside of me would very much like to convince me of the contrary. Men judge according to the outward appearance or the intellect, but God looks at men's hearts. When Jesus Christ was on the earth, he looked at every person and fundamentally knew each person's heart. He did not favor the handsome or the beautiful; Isaiah said that Christ Himself had no form or comeliness. Christ did not favor the learned; He utterly despised and condemned the hypocritical Pharisees and the intellectually permissive Saducees. Nevertheless, the Savior told all men to follow Him. To the woman taken in adultery He said, "Come." To the repentant publican He said. "Come." To the overzealous zealot He said, "Come." To the thieves on the cross He said, "Come." To each and every Nephite in Bountiful He said, "Come."

The incredible thing about Christ was that he really was better than everybody else. He was the only person who could be completely proud about his actions, knowledge, and behavior. Instead He took every single person at their own level of spiritual development and offered them His life. He was perfectly patient, He was perfectly understanding, and He was perfectly merciful. What an example for all of us prideful academics! I might submit that the newest and most blatant type of prejudice is not according to color, or class, or gender but it is along intellectual lines. The sooner that all of us so-called "intellectuals" realize that we are no better than anyone else, the sooner we will really come to understand the true nature of humanity.

posted by Joel @ 11:33 PM