The boastful cannot stand in Your presence. (Psalm 5:5b)

Pride separates us from God. We have to leave something behind – ourselves – when we approach Him. We can’t have it both ways – our own and His. We might not label it as pride. We call it control, priorities, organization, responsibility, management, or many other things. Things that in our individualistic society sound noble and helpful instead of a hindrance to faith. But it is a hindrance. Seeing things our own way gets in the way of truth. Sure, things might make more sense to us through our own eyes, feelings, and experiences, but with nothing to measure against, how can we possibly know where we are or how we’re doing? Comparing ourselves to others? That rarely ends well. We still pick and choose how authentically we compare.

We often pit pride and humility against each other in simplistic terms, as if pride is feeling good about ourselves or something and humility is being ashamed about ourselves or something. We get it turned upside down and inside out. Pride shuts out others, no matter how inclusive we think we’re being. We simply rationalize who is “us” and who is “them.” Humility welcomes, because it opens our eyes to the truth of our similarities and possibilities. Humility helps us believe.

Faith isn’t easy. Humility isn’t easy.

But easy isn’t the goal of faith.