Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Arrogance
A story was told when a lady heard that a driver is driving against the traffic flow on a road over the news. Anxiously, she called her husband and cautioned him. The husband answered, "on the road that I am in now, everybody else but me is driving against the traffic!"
In my opinion, arrogance is the mental state at which a person is blind to his own mistakes. When being told of his mistakes, not only does the person refuse to see this as his mistake, he accuses of everyone else of being wrong.
I have a friend whose name shall be kept anonymous for obvious purpose. He thinks he knows a lot about the Bible. In fact, he thinks he knows more than his pastor, his mentors, his cell group leaders. Full of himself, he refuses to seek and follow the advice of others. When his friends leave him one by one, he accuses them of not being a true friend as a true friend will stay with him no matter what happens. To some extent, he is true. I am not saying I am correct nor say he is wrong. Yes, a friend should stay with him. Beyond a certain threshold, I will think it is only logical for the friend to leave him. For example, let us just assume X sees Y swimming in a river. X knows that a current is coming and Y will be swept away if Y continues to waddle in the river. In love, X tells Y to get up the shore and tells Y that a current is coming. Y insists that it is only right for him to remain in the water and X should come and join him. By now, the current is just a few kilometres upstream. X tries to pull Y up, Y refused and accuses X of meddling with his life. At this juncture, I will think its only logical for X to leave as it is foolish for X to jump in and join Y knowing both will be swept away.
Chances are, this friend of mine will not read this. Even if he is to read this, it is very likely that he does not even know that I am talking about him. Nonetheless, I pray that he will be moulded by God the way God wants him to be. As far as I can see, he is definately not living the life God has intended for him to be and showing no intentions for change. Granted, I may be seeing things from my human perspective, but here are the evidences.
1. He claims that he knows the Bible. He believes that those who knows the Bible can judge. Thus, it is justifiable for him to pass judgement on anyone even when Jesus says he passes judgement on no one in Jn 8. (If he reads this, he will say I am quoting Jn 8 out of context. Frankly, I don't see how have I quoted this out of context from the little human wisdom God has given me). Christ urged us not to pass judgement, as if we pass judgement on others, the yardstick that we used to judge others will be used against ourselves (Matt 7). In my understanding, if he claims that he uses the Bible to judge, none will stand, including himself.
2. Friends around him urge him to change his mentality as they see him going against the traffic. Instead, he claims that his friends are the ones going against the traffic. Only he is right.
3. When his church adopted a model for growth, he claims that the church is instilling secular management theories in the church. This is not Christ-like. But if you look at the model the church adopted, it is Christ centred in every aspect, at least in my opinion. The model beseech members to pray more, adore Christ, read the Bible, give sacrificially, etc. He mean these are not Christ-like? Then what is?
4. When people make mistakes, he is unforgiving.
5. When he thinks he is hurt, he turns defensive and is out to seek revenge. In fact, he made the following remark, "... be sure that I will return you tenfold" when he feels threatened.
6. He thinks everyone else is wrong. The ministry is going the wrong direction, the church is going the wrong direction.
In case you are wondering, I already given up talking to him. Frequency very different. In fact, most of his friends have given up. To show how different our frequencies are, below is a snippet of our conversation.
Me: Can I have the contact of C? (In case you are wondering, C is a lady)
Him: No.
Me: Why?
Him: I need to ask her before I give to you.
Me: *thinking its fair enough* OK
*5 minutes later*
Him: Her email. ABCDEFG@HIJK.LMN
Me: thanks bro
Him: Enjoy, she online, knock yourself out bah, dun bully her.
Me: *Huh???* nah... just chat
Him: whateva, means nothing to me.
*then he logged off*
*few days later*
Him: I am glad I was generous to you.
Me: Huh?
Him: I generously gave u her email when you asked for it.
Me: *double huh?* what you mean?
Him: nvm
eh... liddat very hard to communicate ley... dun u think so?
In my opinion, arrogance is the mental state at which a person is blind to his own mistakes. When being told of his mistakes, not only does the person refuse to see this as his mistake, he accuses of everyone else of being wrong.
I have a friend whose name shall be kept anonymous for obvious purpose. He thinks he knows a lot about the Bible. In fact, he thinks he knows more than his pastor, his mentors, his cell group leaders. Full of himself, he refuses to seek and follow the advice of others. When his friends leave him one by one, he accuses them of not being a true friend as a true friend will stay with him no matter what happens. To some extent, he is true. I am not saying I am correct nor say he is wrong. Yes, a friend should stay with him. Beyond a certain threshold, I will think it is only logical for the friend to leave him. For example, let us just assume X sees Y swimming in a river. X knows that a current is coming and Y will be swept away if Y continues to waddle in the river. In love, X tells Y to get up the shore and tells Y that a current is coming. Y insists that it is only right for him to remain in the water and X should come and join him. By now, the current is just a few kilometres upstream. X tries to pull Y up, Y refused and accuses X of meddling with his life. At this juncture, I will think its only logical for X to leave as it is foolish for X to jump in and join Y knowing both will be swept away.
Chances are, this friend of mine will not read this. Even if he is to read this, it is very likely that he does not even know that I am talking about him. Nonetheless, I pray that he will be moulded by God the way God wants him to be. As far as I can see, he is definately not living the life God has intended for him to be and showing no intentions for change. Granted, I may be seeing things from my human perspective, but here are the evidences.
1. He claims that he knows the Bible. He believes that those who knows the Bible can judge. Thus, it is justifiable for him to pass judgement on anyone even when Jesus says he passes judgement on no one in Jn 8. (If he reads this, he will say I am quoting Jn 8 out of context. Frankly, I don't see how have I quoted this out of context from the little human wisdom God has given me). Christ urged us not to pass judgement, as if we pass judgement on others, the yardstick that we used to judge others will be used against ourselves (Matt 7). In my understanding, if he claims that he uses the Bible to judge, none will stand, including himself.
2. Friends around him urge him to change his mentality as they see him going against the traffic. Instead, he claims that his friends are the ones going against the traffic. Only he is right.
3. When his church adopted a model for growth, he claims that the church is instilling secular management theories in the church. This is not Christ-like. But if you look at the model the church adopted, it is Christ centred in every aspect, at least in my opinion. The model beseech members to pray more, adore Christ, read the Bible, give sacrificially, etc. He mean these are not Christ-like? Then what is?
4. When people make mistakes, he is unforgiving.
5. When he thinks he is hurt, he turns defensive and is out to seek revenge. In fact, he made the following remark, "... be sure that I will return you tenfold" when he feels threatened.
6. He thinks everyone else is wrong. The ministry is going the wrong direction, the church is going the wrong direction.
In case you are wondering, I already given up talking to him. Frequency very different. In fact, most of his friends have given up. To show how different our frequencies are, below is a snippet of our conversation.
Me: Can I have the contact of C? (In case you are wondering, C is a lady)
Him: No.
Me: Why?
Him: I need to ask her before I give to you.
Me: *thinking its fair enough* OK
*5 minutes later*
Him: Her email. ABCDEFG@HIJK.LMN
Me: thanks bro
Him: Enjoy, she online, knock yourself out bah, dun bully her.
Me: *Huh???* nah... just chat
Him: whateva, means nothing to me.
*then he logged off*
*few days later*
Him: I am glad I was generous to you.
Me: Huh?
Him: I generously gave u her email when you asked for it.
Me: *double huh?* what you mean?
Him: nvm
eh... liddat very hard to communicate ley... dun u think so?
# posted by dreamy_panda @ 3:38 AM 
