Oops! I Meant to Do That

Pride in Ourselves Instead of God

Cats are among the most graceful of God’s creatures. Animal ballet dancers, they combine the grace and fragility of fine porcelain with the athletic power of a professional athlete. Even these finely honed Olympians, though sometimes stumble. When they do lose their footing, they do so spectacularly!

You’ve probably seen the funny videos of cats warming themselves over aquarium lights, only to roll over and fall into the water below. How about the montages of cats leaping and missing, stepping into thin air or getting caught in paper bags? Yes, cats know how to embarrass themselves.

Shadow is, herself, a bit on the bumbling side. Whether it’s due to her natural timidity or an inner ear infection, there are times when a precarious perch leaves her uncertain. Even when she looks confident and poised, though, her actions can end in an inglorious fall. A graceful step to the edge of a sink can end in soaked fur and pathetic mewls. An extraordinary leap in fluid motion can end in a misstep that sends her careening into a tailspin. Then…wipeout!

As funny as it can be to watch a cat fall from its self-imposed pedestal, even more humorous is the effect such a drop has on the cat herself. I’m sure you’ve seen it. The cat pauses momentarily to regain equilibrium. Then the frantic grooming starts…”composure grooming” it’s called, and with good reason. It’s all a ploy to save face and send the message, “I’m not a klutz; I meant to do that.”

Such a ploy seems ridiculous. Why can’t the cat be like a dog, admit the flub, laugh at itself and move on?

That’s what happens when you take yourself too seriously. It’s not a strictly feline failing, though. Far from it. In this area, Shadow and I are much alike.

Perfection can be a heavy burden, whether the expectation is external—parents, friends or spouse—or internal. Any time people or cats place themselves on pedestals, they’re destined to fall.

Such stumbles can be spectacular, like the fall of a revered Christian leader into sin. Or, they can be minor, like forgetting to prepare a Sunday School lesson. Either way, it becomes a real problem if our need for perfection doesn’t allow us to fess up and (if appropriate) laugh at ourselves. The Bible calls this by a specific name…pride.

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Or, if you prefer, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace” (Proverbs 11:2). On the other hand, “The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honor” (Proverbs 15:33).

Don’t you just love Proverbs?

In case you think that’s the only book that talks about pride and humility, Jesus reminds us in the book of Matthew, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (5:5).

We are called to humility. If the above verses didn’t make it clear, you only have to look in the dictionary to find that pride is the opposite of humility.

Part of pride is making your mistakes more important than they are. Have you ever said or done something that made your cheeks burn for days whenever you thought about it? Yet, when you next talked to your friends, had they forgotten all about it? Probably. That’s pride in play. If a cat falls off the back of the couch, the other cats don’t think about it past the moment. The master notices, but loves the cat all the more for its foibles. The cat, by being to proud to laugh at itself, misses all the fun!

So many of us feel our failings are in our failures…our trips, our stumbles and missteps, our plunges into the cold water of the aquarium. Christ never said that. We don’t need to be perfect; He was perfect for us. What does God want? Psalms reminds us.

“The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

A broken spirit is the opposite of a proud spirit; a contrite heart is a humble heart.

When we focus on God, we take the focus off ourselves. That leaves us free to climb down off our precarious perch. If we climb off our pedestals, a stumble isn’t such a cat-astrophe! We won’t have as far to fall, and there will likely be a friendly hand to reach out and steady us. If our pride won’t let us admit that we have had—or could have or will have—a misstep, we may be in for some lonely composure grooming.