For me, it would definitely be when I had to clean the staff bathrooms at my first job at Mayfield Lake Youth Camp. They hadn't been cleaned, or even flushed, all year. And I had only a sponge to work with.
Makes me want to go wash my hands just thinking about it.
While we're on the topic of disgusting things, have any of you stumbled upon Acts 12:21-23 recently?
On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. The people kept crying out, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.
Ewww, yuck. Reminds me of a very similar story in Daniel 4:30-33:
The king reflected and said, "Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?" While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, "King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you, and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes. Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws.
Man, talk about dreadlocks. These two disgusting stories have a very central theme running through them: a man exhibiting an extraordinary amount of pride and receiving an immediate, immensely-humbling judgement from God as a result. It makes me think, what is the most disgusting thing God has to deal with? Given the severity and nature of His judgement on pride in these two passages, could it be pride?
Indeed, we find pride at the top of the list of things that are an abomination to God in Proverbs 6:16-17A:
There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes . . ."
Even as flawed image-bearers of God, we have a knee-jerk negative reaction to pride. That know-it-all who bends our ear with his apparent wisdom; that self-obsessed jock on the sports field with the bat flip or the chest thumping; the glamourous girl with the upturned nose and squinted eyes. We wish someone would cut them down a notch or two, often because our own pride is offended. Imagine, then, the righteous disgust the perfect God of the Universe, who deserves all the praise and glory, feels when we little blobs of dirt start thinking highly of ourselves.
It is despicable--putrid. Pride is putrid.
It's no wonder then that both James (James 4:6) and Peter (1 Peter 5:5) quote Proverbs 3:34:
God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
If you're like me, at this point it's getting personal. My heart sinks. My stomach twists. I know what a young man of pride I am. It creeps into many of my thoughts. It daily taints my Christian walk. I so wish I could be rid of it!!
I can only trust my amazing Father to keep giving me the strength to change. I know from that same passage in 1 Peter 5:5 that He understands the struggle we go through with our pride, especially us young men, as right before verse five we are called out to "be subject to your elders, and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another." We're given the practical solution in how to carry out this transformation in verses 6-7:
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your care on Him, because He cares for you.
We will only conquer our pride by submitting ourselves to God. We have to stop thinking we can do anything on our own--including, ironically, fighting our own pride. Jesus shouldn't be our crutch; he should be our stretcher, our ambulance, our medical team, and our AED. We are nothing but a dead corpse without God! Realizing this, let us bring all our anxieties to Him. It will humble us, realizing we can't handle anything on our own, and God will give us the grace we need to keep growing in true humility! It's a central theme of the Bible: the way to victory is surrender.
I'm done with the putridness of pride. I want to stop stinking, and smell more and more like the sweet aroma of Christ! Who's with me? May we all be like Nebuchadnezzar, who had his reason restored when he turned his eyes to heaven and blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever. May we not become like Herod, a man who built his own crumbling little sand castle of a kingdom while God's eternal Word and rock-solid Kingdom was spreading like wildfire. May we refuse to be a dead corpse eaten up by pride, but instead take the first step to true humility by humbling ourselves and drawing near to God. Will you insert your name for Nebuchadnezzar's in this verse? Will you confidently say:
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.
Daniel 4:37
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