“We never see ourselves as arrogant.”

A thought by Larry Osborne, (2009-04-04) from his book, Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith (Kindle Location 474). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book)

Dave Roberts, our pastor here at Montrose Church said yesterday that each one of us have 3-4 blind spots in our personality. We don’t see them but everyone else does. Being arrogant could be one of those blind spots that a lot of us have. And it's not a good one.

Larry says, “It’s the ultimate blind spot. We never see ourselves as arrogant. We might admit to an occasional struggle with pride, but we never cop to full-blown arrogance. We never think we’re inappropriately looking down on others. We think we’re seeing things as they really are. We think the people we look down on really are beneath us.”

Now that is not good is it?

He goes one, “To keep from falling into that trap, I try to regularly ask myself if there is any group of people or Christians for whom I am developing a knee-jerk response of disgust, disdain, or aversion. If the answer is yes, it’s an early warning sign that I’m headed down the path of arrogance. So here’s a question you might want to ask yourself: ‘Do I have my own: “thank God I’m not like them” list? And if so, who’s on it?’”

Then he says, “I have no idea what tempts you to feel superior. I have no idea what kind of people you’re tempted to look down on. But most of us have a list — or at least the beginnings of a list. And most of us have no idea how dangerous that list is. If left in place, it can nullify all the good that we do; it can put us at the top of God’s ‘I hate it when you do that’ list. So if you have one, destroy it. Don’t just put it aside in a drawer somewhere. Burn it. Nuke it. You’ll be glad you did. And so will your Lord.”

So do you have a list?

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