LITTLE FOXES

Song of Solomon 2:15 speaks of little foxes ruining the vineyards. This is how I feel about pride. It's the little, seemingly innocent considerations of self that can sneak in and lead me into prideful self-exaltation. Yesterday I broke my PR (personal record) for a 5K by almost two minutes. I was so excited I wanted to jump up and down. I had been trying to break 27 minutes in a 5K for over a year. It is no sin to be excited about an accomplishment. But, oh how quickly can that excitement morph seemlessly and unnoticeably into pride. Pretty soon I can find myself putting others down and thinking so much about myself and my accomplishment that I am way off track from where God wants me to be. And where does God want me to be in that moment? Paul said in Philippians that he had learned the lesson of how to live in every circumstance. There were times of plenty and times of need; times of success and times of seeming failure. What was the secret? "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Yes, this is the lesson - it all comes back to Him. In Him I live and move and have my being (Acts 17:28) and so when I wake up, when I lay down, when I am able to run a 5K, when I am able to be patient with my children, my eyes should turn toward Christ in thanksgiving. Celebration of accomplishment that doesn't end up in thanksgiving to God can easily turn into a prideful exaltation of self.

So thank you God! Thank you for running and giving me the ability to run hard yesterday - each step for Your glory.