what does pride cometh before?

I apologize to those of you who are following along each day. I have a nasty cold. I've been taking medicine and sleeping and trying to get over it today. It's been pretty miserable. I WILL be uploading the recording of yesterday's Bible readings, and they're already on YouTube if you want to just look at my channel. I will also record today's readings when I can talk without coughing and sneezing every few seconds. In the meantime, CLICK HERE to hear someone else do the readings for today.

But from today's reading, we find ourselves immersed in a story about pride. The Tower of Babel story is the quintessential tale of what happens when people get a little too full of themselves. God takes them down a notch, and scatters them, with new languages, around the Earth.

This is where we can learn something. I recently read a question online where someone asked "If you had to fight Satan, what form would you make the competition? How would you compete?" and someone had replied "Humility", which I thought was appropriate. Satan's big downfall was his pride. It's the chief of the deadly sins for us, too. And practicing humility is not something our enemy is known for. Incidentally, practicing humility is also how we can resist his temptations.

My friend and I were talking about hubris today, and we decided it would make a good name for a car. The Ford Hubris. But whether or not that would fit, it's not a name we want to take on for ourselves.

If you would like to see what pride looks like in all its true, ugly glory, watch the first episode of the fourth season of Black Mirror. There is a character who demonstrates for you what pride really looks like when you take it to its logical conclusion. But don't watch Season One episode one. It's very offensive. Each episode stands on its own. Strong language warning.

All of that to say, let's be more like Jesus in practicing humility. How was Jesus humble, you might ask? But you probably already know the answer. Becoming human was an act of humility so great that we can't fully comprehend it. And then, after being human, submitting to being tortured and killed, when any moment He could have called the angels to come and rescue Him? That's what humility looks like.

God, please make us more humble, like You.