A Big Head

“If my head is exalted, You hunt me like a fierce lion, and again You show Yourself awesome against me.” Job 10:16

We’ve all known people who think they’re “all that.” They are important, busy, and indispensable to their project, even ministry. If confronted, they deny everything.

Here is poor Job, beaten down by the enemy’s attacks and accusations; he lost it all, had nothing to show for his righteous life except misery, terror, depression, and questions. He literally did nothing to bring this upon himself, and yet there he was, sitting in the ash heap. (We know the backstory—Satan instigated everything.)

Job wondered if maybe, just maybe, he’d taken pride in his righteousness, his family, his riches—had an exalted head, perhaps—and God had found it necessary to hunt him down like a fierce lion, to show him he was really nothing at all.

I’ve been there. Oh, the shame of acting as if I am something, when I am nothing. “For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Galatians 6:3). The truth is, there’s always someone smarter, more experienced, more loving, more knowledgeable, more gifted, or more talented.

Pastor Jon Courson says this: “It has been wisely said that to determine how important you are, stick your finger into a bucket of water, pull it out, and see how long it takes to fill the hole.”

I’ve needed a reality check too many times to count. I know better mothers than I, better writers, better friends, better teachers, musicians, athletes, students. More godly, more able, more loving; stronger, wiser, and more mature.

Here’s the rub: obviously, if I have pride in an area, I have compared myself to man. The best someone else can do is what I aspire to. People are my standard.

This is the shame of pride. Lord, forgive me. I may imitate the godly, mature person—this is acceptable and even recommended in Scripture—but my standard is not man, it is Christ. We should only imitate Christ working in a person. “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). “…do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12).

How does God stop the pride? Our opening Scripture tells us: He shows us His awesomeness.

Our mouth clamps shut in His presence. We have no words to excuse ourselves. When He reveals Himself to us, then we know our littleness. But we also have our standard.

It is love.

Lord, forgive us our big heads, our misperceptions of ourselves. We have worth in Your eyes simply because You declared it to be so. We don’t have to “be” anything else except Your child. We give You all honor. Be high and lifted up in our lives. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.