July 14

The absurdity of pride

“For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Gal. 6:3).
“Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits” (Rom. 12:16).

“Pride,” says Ruskin, “is at the bottom of all great mistakes. Nor does it require experience of life to prove the truth of the dictum. The worst of it, however, is that pride seems to blind its victims. They are unconscious of any responsibility for the wreckage around them. The callous self has the eyes of the heart fast closed to what is obvious to the onlooker. So, locked up in steel, the proud soul wounds and knows it not; alienates and wonders at the shrinking; struts through life, losing and unconscious of its loss; instructing, but uninstructed. For herein does Nature avenge herself upon the man who erects himself above his kind. The proud heart and lofty mountain are always barren.”

Two little raindrops were born in a shower,
And one was so pompously proud of his power,
He got in his head an extravagant notion
He’d hustle right off and swallow the ocean.
A blade of grass that grew by the brook
Called for a drink, but no notice he took
Of such trifling things. He must hurry to be
Not a mere raindrop, but the whole sea.
A stranded ship needed water to float,
But he could not bother to help a boat.
He leaped in the sea with a puff and a blare—
And nobody even knew he was there!

But the other drop as along it went
Found the work to do for which it was sent;
It refreshed the lily that drooped its head,
And bathed the grass that was almost dead.
It got under the ships and helped them along,
And all the while sang a cheerful song.
It worked every step of the way it went,
Bringing joy to others, to itself content,
And welcomed the sea as an old-time friend.
“An ocean,” it said, “there could not be
Except for the millions of drops like me.”
—Joseph Morris.

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