A Page Shaped Hole in All of Us

Two days ago I picked up two women who were walking. I drove them to the store, waited for them while they bought some beer and fags, and drove them back to their apartment. One said it was the nicest thing anyones done for her in a long time.

I started sponsoring 3 little boys with Compassion. It costs me 114 dollars a month and I write them letters, out of my free time, so I can encourage them and make their lives less crappy. Because of my sponsorship they’re getting education, food, shelter, and a brighter future.

At a greyhound station, waiting on a bus, I bought a homeless guy a bus ticket to Houston.  What’s he going to do in Houston? Who knows.

I called a small prison not far from me and got a list of all the inmates and wrote them each a personal card encouraging them not to give up hope. 

And that was just this week.

The funny thing about me doing all those things is you don’t know if I really did them or not…

And guess what…no one cares. How good I am doesn’t concern you, even a little bit.  The things that I do throughout the day don’t make me a better person or even good. The small amount of good a person does doesn’t earn them anything. It won’t get you a spot in heaven, it won’t make you a righteous person, and it won’t even forgive you for the wrong you’ve done in the past.

Would it matter if I did the things I said above? Would it change the way you think about me? Would it allow me to be self-righteous like somebody owes me something for the good I’ve done.

Pride.

The people I come across throughout my life are all infected with this little thing called pride. It seeps into our hearts and makes us think that we’re better than we are. It makes us think like there’s a small hole in everyone’s heart and if they got to meet us that’d hole would be filled. Pride causes you to look at disdain at the man begging for money, even if you're the one doing the begging. Pride causes you to constantly say “I know” to people as if you’ve never been told something you don’t know. Pride causes relationships to be ruined. It causes you to take insult to things people say to you. And the biggest thing pride does is that it makes us think that we don’t need a savior.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Do you want to know why Jesus said this? Because he knows how much we love ourselves. It’s so much it’s disgusting.  If you spent the amount of money you spent on yourself on your neighbor you might actually start to see your pride go away. love. war. 

"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." –Solomon

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus asked. "Only God is truly good.

update 10/22/12: I didn't do all the things that I said I did in the post. I hope you got it. 

Things to think about:

-Do politics matter.

-Where does most of our air come from.

-What your taxes go to pay for.

-Have you turned your back on any of your friends.

-Leaving for work earlier

Things to read:

-James

-Mark Cuban’s blog

Things to listen to:

Have you heard of US?