I did something yesterday that I (for the most part) try and avoid: I got into an argument on the internet. The subject matter was trivial, and basically, I was arguing with people who kept trying to tell me what my opinion was, what my words meant, and kept adding to what I was saying, and, at the same time, calling me bigoted, hateful, and every name under the sun. All I said to initiate this was “I would like to see people make good movies,” or something to that effect. It was kind of crazy, actually. The needlessness of the attacks, when what I was saying had nothing to do with “bigotry” at all.
The way in which people told me what I had to be thinking because I disagreed with their standpoint, and how I was painted as ugly, hateful, and ignorant because I had an opinion that was different than theirs got me thinking. As I walked away from the conversation, I was scratching my head and wondering “why.” Then it hit me: some people are so convinced of their own importance, and the importance of their position, that they refuse to see anyone who disagrees with them as also valid, good, virtuous, or even human. And this is nothing new.
Now, I have no ill will toward people, even those who would set themselves up as my critics, but I must say that self-importance is a dangerous position to be set up on. It takes no real high ground, nor does it seek to find common ground. Self-importance simply positions itself to a place where it can never be contradicted, it is superior to all other positions, authorities and viewpoints, and built upon one huge lie: I am the most important person here.
Jesus said such people would be humbled in a big way. What is more, such a position (before it is brought low), even deigns to tell God what should and should not be. A proud person cannot see God clearly, if at all. Pray for humility, for me, you, and others, that we may see clearly, and that we may fall to our knees, crying out for a Lord and Savior. Otherwise, we’ll proudly march up to the seat of judgement, and be brought low when our credentials just are not enough.
Luke 14: 7-35
Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
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