July 14th, 2020: Foolishness, Pride and Death
From time to time, I take time and listen to
Vietnamese music. Some of these songs are very close to my heart. They
bring back many memories and emotions that I would not want to forget.
Sometimes I know that much of who I am still very Vietnamese. Sometimes
my heart is sad and grateful while listening to these favorite songs. I
think a lot about how God has carried me through all these years.
I
have thought about the foolishness of human selfish desires (mine
included). How much of our meaningful relationships have been damaged by
it? As we think about our family and others whom we loved ones. The
biggest thing that can separate us is the self-serving approach we have
in these relationships.
I have thought about
wrongful pride that destroys our needed humility to seek for
forgiveness. We allow that to eat away blessings we have in our
relationships with others. Pride does not have to be loud. It can be
quiet, but it is like water. It will find its way to bring about
destruction in many aspects of our relationship to one another.
I
have thought a lot about spiritual death. It is the death that has
taken away the needed closeness we desire to have with God. Sometimes it
is the death of the glory of personal satisfaction and the depth of our
longing. We experience the emptiness of oneself so that we might
discover the fullness of God's presence.
These
thoughts now take me to what we see happening in the US and Canada. We
might just want to pray for the death of foolishness of self-serving
attitude, the death of arrogant pride, and the death of spiritual
longing for God.
" fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion." (Proverbs 18: 2)
"If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet." (Proverbs 29: 9)
"Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding." (Proverbs 10: 23)
