CJ Penn's Online Writing Hangout

The reason I write: To promote Christian truth and help Jesus get His Christianity back.

Tag Archives: Human nature


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Are Some Christian Churches Prisoners of Pride?

As the dominant religion in many countries, has Christianity become prideful and arrogant, like a cocky big kid on the block? For some reason, this idea seeped into my mind this morning as I waited for the coffee to sweep away the nightly fog. Though this idea of arrogant Christianity may sound odd, for me it explains a lot.

It explains why many Christian churches are shrinking, and why there are more de-churched Christians every year. It explains why many Christians and churches behave in ways that appear very un-Christian. It explains why many churches try to exercise their imagined power by pushing their opinions upon others, opinions, such as political preferences, that are completely worldly. It explains why, as some surveys indicate, many de-churched Christians as well as current churchgoers never felt the presence of God in church. Maybe there was so much pride, there was no room for God.

You see, arrogance and pride are exclusively human characteristics, not from God but from Satan. Because of what I see on the surface, yes, I believe modern Christianity has become infected and sometimes dominated by pride and arrogance. And many Christians and their churches are suffering because of it.

But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead of relying on self and worldly things such as organizational structure, politicians, traditions, how nice your church building is, or other such pride-driven things, we just need to rely on God, Jesus, and their Spirit—yes, the Holy Spirit of God and Jesus, the Spirit who’s often missing from sermons. It’s the Spirit of Jesus living and breathing within the bodies of believers who will set Christianity free from pride and the damage pride causes.

Many churches are prisoners of pride. I pray it’s time for the Spirit of God to set them free.


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Meet Mimi and Humble

Mimi & HumbleAllow me to introduce you to Mimi and Humble, two interesting, yet common individuals. Mimi tends to be the more loud and talkative of the two, sometimes striving for volume in violation of OSHA safety limits. Humble, of course, tends to be quiet and passive.

Mimi suffers a lot, is rarely content, and more rarely happy. Mimi has a hard time thinking about the needs or considerations of other people. Yes, Mimi is selfish, self-centered, self-conscious, vain, prideful, and sometimes downright arrogant.

Humble also suffers at times, but for different reasons. Where Mimi is often angry, Humble is sometimes sad. But we’ll get into that later. I could tell you more about Mimi and Humble, but instead, let’s listen in on a recent conversation between the two.

“Can you believe how stubborn he is?” Mimi whined. “It’s right in front of his face, but he won’t see it.”

“Look, I see how stressed you’re getting about this,” Humble said. “Maybe just let it go. I don’t think you can get him to change his mind.”

“I don’t expect to convince him to change his mind,” Mimi went on to say. “He’s too stubborn for that. But I just have to tell him how wrong he is.”

“Um, do you think that’s really a good idea? I mean, will it help?”

“It won’t help him—too stubborn. He’s beyond help. But I’ll feel better.”

“It just makes me sad to see you so angry and stressed out. This issue between you two has been going on for almost a week now. And it just keeps you in a bad mood.”

“Talk about something else.”

“The news is on. Do you want to turn on the TV and see what’s new with the election?”

“Whatever.”

Humble grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, going to the list of recorded programs and selected the news broadcast that began recording about ten minutes ago.

“Oh, s*#t! If that guys wins,” Mimi growled, “we’re all doomed. What an idiot.”

As Mimi kept complaining about various politicians, and then migrated to other topics to complain about, Humble struggled to remain quiet, feeling there was nothing to say that could help. Again, Humble was sad, sad for Mimi. Mimi seemed unaware of the self-induced suffering. If Mimi could only let go of complaints and worries about things that may never occur. Humble realizes that’ll never happen, it’s not in Mimi’s nature.

When Mimi’s not happy, no one’s happy—the old cliché is so true. It can be hard living with Mimi at times. But that’s the way of life, and Humble is determined to stick it out. So, how can Humble find freedom from the wrath of Mimi? It’s not going to be simple. Humble needs to become stronger, stronger than Mimi.

Who are Mimi and Humble? As you may already know, they are the two sides of our personality. We each have our own Mimi and Humble. Within our personalities, one is often stronger than the other, and it’s usually easy for others to discern which is stronger, Mimi or Humble, for that is who they see. Within some people, it would seem like Humble is dead, as there is no sign of its existence. True peace and happiness comes when it appears as if Mimi is dead, and Humble is thriving.

How well do you know these two sides of your own personality?


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Living for Eternity

God quiet

I thought I had found it. I thought I had discovered the underlying reason for our often-damaging natural human pride. But the flaws in my theory soon made themselves seen. Yet there are still parts of the theory that make sense to me.

They say that ego and arrogance come from insecurity – I believe this. I also believe that our mortality can feed our core sense of insecurity. Our life is short; we have little time to experience life – this can feed insecurity. Our mortal future may not be clear; we are uncertain of what waits for us on the other side of death – this gives more food to our insecurity. For those who are certain of heaven, they may feel uncertain of how God will judge them; and the insecurity gets bigger and stronger.

I don’t believe that pride and ego originated as a result of the insecurity that is fed by our mortality. But I do believe that our mortal insecurity feeds the pride that is already part of our natural humanity.

I constantly struggle with my own pride, striving to make it go away. Well, though I can’t make it go away entirely, maybe I can starve it and weaken it a bit… by living past my mortality and instead living for eternity. By faith, I want to accept my immortality that waits for me on the other side of death, and also accept the love and forgiveness already given to me by Jesus Christ. My eternal future is certain and bright.

I believe that accepting our bright immortal future will starve our insecurity, weaken our prideful human nature, and strengthen our humility. What do you think?