Pride and Gratitude

When Pride and Gratitude show up to dinner, they often look very similar. Smiles, even if short-lived. They both look around the house, at the kids, at the dinner on the table and begin their reflections with “Look!…” The reflections diverge at that point, but they both begin with a sense of satisfaction with what lay around them. When Gratitude and Pride show up to history class (at least good history classes) they often look very similar. Something growing in the chest, some smiles, astonished questions and a revelatory identification with great things in their own people’s history. They both begin their reflections with “Look! …” When they show up at ones’ daily work, it’s the same thing. A sense of accomplishment, smiles (so long as the work is going well), and a realization that good things are afoot. But the differences, laying both beneath and in what comes next is the difference between Christianity and paganism. The differences are as starker than one can imagine.

We have lived in an age marked by a distinctive ideological envy. This envy is the appeal of Marxism and every progressive impulse. They put nice political and sociological justifications over the top of our collective envies. And because of this pervasive envy overt pride has been forbidden and labeled racist or worse. But so has gratitude. At your next social event, start a conversation expressing your profound gratitude for any distinctive of European cultural exploits and you’ll quickly see what I mean. You can even do it in reference to your family. The trolls will find a way to ruin a gracious father’s positive comments about how well Suzy is doing in her Calculus class. And because of this accusatory envy one might be forgiven for getting confused on this important distinction between pride and gratitude, but the danger of such confusion remains.

Gratitude looks at the abundant gifts all of us are surrounded by and says “Look at what God has done.” Pride, even if it is self aware not to say it out loud, says, “Look what my hands have wrought!” Or “Look at how great my people are!” Pride show up at family dinner and its foundational impulse is to consider the kids’ good behavior, and the abundance of good food on the table as being, in the first place, a reflection of my own accomplishments. It swells in the chest, but it also swells the head. But gratitude is born of faith. It takes its first bite into the chicken parm, and as the chest swells, it considers the kindnesses of God that led to this dinner table. It sees the cathedrals of Europe, the chest swells, and give thanks to God for the great wisdom and vision he gave our fathers. In other words, in accordance with Hebrews 11 it believes that God exists and is a rewarder of those who seek Him. It beholds these great and various gifts as the gracious kindness of God.

In our current discourse we are regaining the freedom to feel our chest’s swell when we recognize the good gifts of God. But far too many of us are allowing that swelling to extend to the head rather than lifting our heads in thanksgiving. Pride poisons the dinner and it poisons the history. It becomes hyper-vigilant in anything that reflects poorly on its accomplishments. It becomes an expert in the corruption of others as an odd sort of way to dismiss our own. It walks with a self-wrought swagger, than a joyful confidence in the faithfulness of God to build, to conquer and to sustain. Everything is at stake in this distinction - pride or gratitude, faith or unbelief, heaven and hell. Pride will inevitably give way to envy, which is how we got to this spot as a society. Pride is unsustainable. We live in a world filled with wonders and designed to shrink heads. You cannot see the world God has made, hear the histories of other peoples or encounter a coworker who’s just plain more ingenious than you and hold on pride. It will either give way to faith and gratitude or it will descend into a bitterness and envy that poisons the soul.

So when you sit down to dinner, let your chest swell and give way in thanksgiving to God, for He has provided faith, He has given bread, and He has skillfully wielded His mercy in your family’s life to give wonderful gifts. Tell of the exploits of King Alfred and the good Scottish kings. Let your chest swell and bit with joy as you do so, and then give thanks to God for His mercy to raise up such men and to grant them great victories. Take joy in a job well done as you close that deal or install the plumbing, and then give thanks to God for the wisdom he’s given to make such good work possible. Faith looks to God in all things and give thanks. Learn to have this sort of faith.