A Misconception on Pride

There’s this common misconception that a prideful person is just essentially a boastful person. As a result, most of us don’t think of ourselves as prideful people because we have at least some measure of social awareness not to boast about ourselves publicly. But that sort of pride is simply obnoxious pride. Pride is much more pernicious and pervasive than that, much more than most people care to realize or admit.

Pride, as with all sins, starts in the heart and has to do with how the heart is oriented—in other words, who or what is the “highest” in it. And so often we naturally incline inward rather than outward or upward.

Pride is simply a self-centeredness, which at first doesn’t sound great but still not all too bad. But what ends up happening is you make an idol out of yourself and you become your own god. And when you become your own god, you invert reality, you unanchor yourself from truth, and thus chaos ensues—first in yourself, and then into the world.

“For you will be like God,” said the serpent to Eve. And it was shortly after that all of humanity was careened into death.