There is great theology in cartoons and comics.
After a minister had preached a searching sermon on pride, a woman who had heard the sermon waited upon him and told him that she was in much distress of mind, and that she would like to confess to a great sin. The minister asked her what the sin was. She answered, "The sin of pride, for I sat for an hour before my mirror some days ago admiring my beauty." "Oh," responded the minister, "that was not a sin of pride—that was a sin of imagination!" (Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times)
I would think pride and imagination sort of go hand-in-hand. My old Funk and Wagnalls College Dictionary defines pride in two ways - 1. An undue sense of one’s own superiority; inordinate self-esteem; arrogance; conceit. 2. A proper sense of personal dignity and worth; honorable self-respect. However, I have not been able to find one single positive use of the word pride in the English Bible. Instead God warns us about pride and its pitfalls.
1 John 2:16 (NKJV)
16 For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world.
Proverbs 16:18 (NKJV)
18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
I once attended a meeting of preachers in which I heard one of them say to all the others that God had taught him a lot about humility, and he had become very humble because of it. As I sat and listened, I thought to myself, “There is something wrong here.” Of course I could not be this man’s judge, but it seemed to me that he had just made a very arrogant, prideful statement far short of humility.
I suppose we all have trouble seeing our own pride. Our imagination can get the best of us. 02-14-02
www.nlcbchurch.com
All comic strips are used with written permission.
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