Embracing Joy: Whoa!

This week’s teaching makes me feel like I’m riding a runaway horse doing all the things to bring it to a halt. Things like pulling on the reigns as hard as I can and clinching the saddle horn with the other. All the while I’m screaming, “WHOA!” As in wait a minute. This is moving a bit too fast for me. I’m feeling out of control and I have no idea where this is headed or how it will end up.

Recently my husband was telling a story about the first horse I ever owned. Boy was he spicy. Part horse… part Shetland pony. He wasn’t attractive in stature or nature. One day I set out on a ride near the house and all was going well. We walked down the road and onto a trail through the woods.

Before you imagine a peaceful adventure, think wrestling match between a horse five times your weight with all the power and physical strength necessary to do whatever it pleases. Think battle of the wills between rider and barn sour gelding. Physically, I lost. In the blink of an eye I went from rider to faller to heap on the ground while that horse galloped home.

I assure you I don’t have one fond memory of this particular horse. Anyway… my husband looked out the front window and there stood the horse with no rider. He described what he saw as he stepped out the front door and looked across the field. There I was marching home… hair full of grass, dirt stained shirt, and mad as a hornet. He thought it was funny. Me? Not so much.

I ignored his grin as he checked to see if I was physically okay. With a nod I lifted my foot into the stirrup, and got back up on my stubborn, refuse to listen, pony.

The title of this week’s study, “Defeating Pride”, reminded me of the horse I never really liked. It’s a constant wrestling match of who is in control. Pride which is really me, myself, and I or… God. If I’m not careful pride becomes a runaway horse taking me to places I never wanted to go. When it all begins you feel like you’re off on a new adventure, but in the end you’re dragging yourself home covered in muck.

Habakkuk saw the muck of what was about to happen to his people. He was all too familiar with Babylonian ways. Boy were they a pride-full group. It’s easy to see in others, much harder to see in yourself. The purpose of any Bible study is not to study. It is to embrace God’s work in you through the study. So instead of nodding my head at the crazy pride of the Babylonians during the five days of study, each day one word caused me to form a question to God… and myself.

Today… I share them with you.

The Babylonians were an arrogant lot with an insatiable appetite for more. More possessions, more land, more control, more power, more… more… more. And their arrogance fueled a mentality of entitlement, even if it meant taking their more from others.

Pride moved the Babylonians to insulate themselves by destroying anything or anyone who threatened their power. Their king, Nebuchadnezzar, wanted all the admiration, approval and respect he could get. So he surrounded himself with “yes” men, and destroyed the rest.

Nebuchadnezzar wanted glory, all the glory. So much so that he built a towering statue of himself for the entire kingdom to worship. When he had a dream that the statue fell due to using silver, bronze, iron and clay, he didn’t take that as a sign there might be something more glorious than him. Instead, he covered the statue from head to toe with gold. He demanded all of his subjects worship the golden image of himself. All for his glory.

Pride intoxicated Nebuchadnezzar to the point he could only see what he wanted to see. He saw his glory, his kingdom, his power. He believed he did that. And even when God warned him in a dream that his rule and reign were about to crumble… he didn’t see it. The drug of pride diminished his ability to see the writing on the wall.

Nebuchadnezzar eventually lost his seat on Babylon’s throne, and the country’s final king, Belshazzar, took his place. He loved a good party to the point he took God’s sacred cup from the temple and filled it with wine to toast the gods of silver and gold… bronze, iron, wood, and stone. A country steeped in idolatry… led by an idolater king. Babylon will soon come to an end.

The work of pride in our lives creates insatiable, insulated, inglorious, intoxicated, idol worshipping kings and queens of tiny one-person nations. It can creep in and before you know it you’re atop a runaway horse headed down a path of destruction.

So let me encourage you to wrestle with any and all instances of pride. No matter how insignificant it may seem in the moment. Don’t allow pride to grow into a stubborn, rebellious, refuse to listen, controller of your life. Instead, lean back, pull hard on pride’s reigns, and shout WHOA! at the top of your lungs.

Just know… I’ll be shouting along with you.

Stacy