Pride and Restoration

   While we were passing through Eufaula, AL a few weeks ago, we made a stop and I took some shots of older homes on the main street. Most of these were well kept up and currently lived in, but there was one that looked like this:

   One day, back in the past, this home was probably the pride and joy of someone, but it had evidently fallen on some hard times. I don't know its history, but it appeared to have been abandoned and become run down from neglect. Someone must have bought it and begun the restoration, perhaps with the idea of making their residence in that neighborhood.

   What had once been someone's pride was now an eyesore in a neighborhood of beautiful homes. If that house had feelings, it must have been crying, and maybe saying, "Hey, you look at me now and feel sad, just like I do, but once I was proud and beautiful, and people drove by and pointed with respect. Once I was something, but now...., well perhaps again one day"

   Can this verse, from Psalm 31, fit in here?

"The Lord preserves the faithful
but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride."

   Pride is a subtle thing. It is very easy to let it be a dominant force in your life, or mine.

   Pride in what I have......remember that it is God that gives the blessings

   Pride in what I can do or have done......remember that God gives the strength and abilities

   Even pride in servanthood......ever felt pride in being humble?

   I am often there. Someone can say, "I like what you wrote", or "Your pictures have such feeling", or any other compliment about my life, and I can puff up and feel real good about myself, and what I can do. Then I have to stop and think about why I do these things. Is it to impress others or does it go deeper?

   Some times I fear it's pretty shallow, but at other times I get the feeling that God wants me to share my story and thoughts with others, not so I might be praised, but so that they (whoever "they" are) might have an "aha moment", or at least be able to say "that is me, also".

   I realize, with the Psalmist, that God's repayment of acts of pride may not be fun, and that my life may take on the appearance of that old Alabama house, but God can bring the restoration and make it beautiful again.

   I confess, and I ask for forgiveness, and another chance at usefulness.