Sneaky Resumes
Excerpt from James 4:4–10
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
Reflection by Donna Schaper
Have you ever noticed yourself sneak yourself into a conversation? You don't really say what you are doing, you just do it. "When I was in Italy…." Then you go on to relate to the question of how crusty the whole wheat bread is. You are not really joining the conversation about the bread. You are doing what Karl Jung says we all, almost always, do. He says we "smuggle" our biography into everything.
Post-moderns and critical theorists agree. We not only smuggle ourselves into the conversation; we also often are so blinded by the presuppositions of our class, race, church, parents, colleges that we don't really think. We simply react. That by itself would not be such a problem, if only we would refuse to be proud about it.
Nor would smuggling of ourselves into conversations be a big problem if we weren't proud about it.
Self-satisfaction is a real problem. We can learn instead to be humble about our blinders. We can also learn to talk about the bread and openly "brag" about how it is better in Italy. We can especially brag if we keep a smile on our face and a joke in our heart about how great we really aren't.
Prayer
O God, grant us a way to see that we don't have to prove ourselves with you. Let us enjoy grace and forswear pride. Amen.
Excerpt from James 4:4–10
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
Reflection by Donna Schaper
Have you ever noticed yourself sneak yourself into a conversation? You don't really say what you are doing, you just do it. "When I was in Italy…." Then you go on to relate to the question of how crusty the whole wheat bread is. You are not really joining the conversation about the bread. You are doing what Karl Jung says we all, almost always, do. He says we "smuggle" our biography into everything.
Post-moderns and critical theorists agree. We not only smuggle ourselves into the conversation; we also often are so blinded by the presuppositions of our class, race, church, parents, colleges that we don't really think. We simply react. That by itself would not be such a problem, if only we would refuse to be proud about it.
Nor would smuggling of ourselves into conversations be a big problem if we weren't proud about it.
Self-satisfaction is a real problem. We can learn instead to be humble about our blinders. We can also learn to talk about the bread and openly "brag" about how it is better in Italy. We can especially brag if we keep a smile on our face and a joke in our heart about how great we really aren't.
Prayer
O God, grant us a way to see that we don't have to prove ourselves with you. Let us enjoy grace and forswear pride. Amen.
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