Opinions & Pride...

As this white man was driving into church this morning he listened intently to the various issues/current affairs being discussed in earnest on 3AW693. Talk-back radio is one of my real pleasures in life when I happen to be in transit. This morning discussions ranged from the parliamentary performance of deputy PM Julia Gillard to suspected faulty fixed speed cameras on the new EastLink tollway. One thing continually amazes me about the callers who make talk-back radio so simultaneously pleasurable and painful. They all believe they are right. One caller phoned in responding to the pleas of many drivers who honestly believe they have been unfairly caught out by a speed camera on the aforementioned tollway. His opinion was that every person issued an infringement for speeding were, in fact speeding and had not been 'dudded' by a faulty camera. When asked why and how he could form such a resolute basis for this opinion he simply answered "because..."

And again it struck me...As human beings we have this incredibly audacious presumption of innate correctness on just about every issue known or relevant to us. Somehow, in the scope of all human wisdom and knowledge ever accumulated on this pale blue dot of a planet called Earth we really do believe that we are right. None of us are immune from this prideful condition, including myself. So this white man poses the following question; at what point can we, or do we have the ability to step outside of ourselves and confess the true condition of our innate selves...that actually we may be correct some of the time but actually more often than not we're just deluding ourselves as to how wise we really are. That more often than we'd care to admit we find ourselves just being wrong.

Pride is such a delusionary failing when you really think it through. It ultimately leads us back to a place an angel once stood in the throne-room of Heaven. The most beautiful angel in all God's creation looked at itself and then looked at it's Creator and made the fatal mistake of comparison. In pride that angel fell - for it boastfully assumed it's status was even higher than God. Is it so hard for us, just in the midst of our todays, to step outside of ourselves once in a while and gain some Divine perspective on who we really in light of who He really is? Maybe then, we might just come to a place of understanding, the vantage-point of humility perhaps, that our opinions may be valid and worthy but they are not 100% inerroneous. Or perhaps if all of that is just a little too existential or high-brow to consider then simply reflect on this timeless truth from Proverbs 29:23 ; "a man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honour."

That's the white man's preach for today and by no means do I claim that my opinion is anywhere even near being all-consumingly correct or infallible. Amen to that!