Loss Of Self

When I was first dating my wife, her oldest brother was in medical school on the verge of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. He told stories of the surgeries he participated in and what went on at the hospitals where he operated. On Thanksgiving day, I assumed he would be the person to carve the turkey. But my future mother-in-law would have none of that. She insisted that he would not carve the turkey correctly and instead had my father-in-law carve it.
   I guess there is some truth to the idea that a prophet is not recognized in his own land. How could he be a surgeon, he was just my little boy. How can he be the savior, he was the one making our tables and chairs. There is a certain amount of pride involved in those statements. In some way we don't admit that the other person is more than we want them to be and this is exactly how the crowd reacted to Jesus' statements in Sundays gospel. And because these feelings took over, they lost the message. They never heard the good news. They were too wrapped up n themselves.
   The evil in this world wants us to care more about ourselves. To let our pride take over so we lose focus of God. It is the same pride that overtook Adam and Eve in the garden, because they wanted to be like God and not themselves. Pride is dangerous. Pride is our downfall.
    I believe that pride is at the heart of every sin because any sin can be reduced to putting our own wants, needs and desires before anything else. It is pride that blocked the message then, and it is pride that continues to block the message. This is the reason we must die to ourselves. So that we can truly lose ourselves (pride) and follow Jesus.