The Idiocy of Arrogance

We human beans, uh, I mean 'beings,' take such pride in ourselves. We Americans are proud of our jobs, of our houses, of our cars, of our healthy, good-looking bodies. I speak for myself: I can proudly say I haven't been sick with even the sniffles for at least a year, and it's been several years since I had to visit the doctor. I make it a practice to avoid drugs (e.g. Tylenol, ibuprofen, etc), and haven't taken any of any sort since I had my wisdom teeth out two or three years ago. But what does this say about me? Does it suggest that I work at staying in shape? Sure, I do a little bit of exercise for its own sake, and of course I like to play soccer, hike, rock climb, etc. Is it true that I eat healthily? Well, for the most part. I'm good at avoiding excess fats and excess food in general, not so good at avoiding sugar.

But is my health really a credit to me? A few days ago my brother was home from school for Thanksgiving, and brought his computer with him. He had some old computer games (I mean OLD, like '92 MarioKart) which the three brothers were gleefully enjoying. Certain games my head can't take, and after only a short while I started to get a nice headache and to feel nauseated. I am blessed in that I rarely get headaches, indeed I rarely feel poorly in any way. But for several hours all I wanted to do was sleep. I lay down on the floor with a pillow under my head, feeling kind of pressed into the ground, my head pounding and spinning.

Now, I'm being a little overly dramatic here, but the result of perhaps fifteen minutes of this game laid me low for at least four or five hours. Here I take such pride in my body, and it betrays me in this silly manner! What is this?

We (I) take pride in so many things over which we (I) have no control. Rather than beating my chest about my own 'good fortunes,' I ought to be acknowledging the One who really has power over such things, rather than my pitiful, foolish self.

So that's my story with a moral for the day. We human beans take ourselves far too seriously. We worry about how we look, what people think about us, what we're going to do tomorrow, ten years down the road... A good dose of reality, of seeing who we really are, of seeing who God really is, would do us all a lot of good. The truth will set you free.

I hope you appreciate Get Fuzzy as much as I do. Here's another installment. Enjoy life. Even the silly things.