Don't Be Arrogant About Your Talents
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
“Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.”
Pride is one of the sneakiest sins. It creeps into everything, it’s sometimes hard to spot, and it causes a whole host of other sins and worries. Pride can even worm into our initially good intentions and cause major issues when we think we’re glorifying God!
So, how does pride impact the Christian creative? And how can we spot it?
Pride can tell us that we are infallible or that we can’t possibly fail; pride can simply take the proper credit away from God, leading us out of community with Him. It can interfere with our emotions, with our relationships, and with our ability to do the work that God has us to do.
Hence, one of the biggest problems of pride for Christian creatives is the pressure it puts on us to create. Working under the loving God, our tasks are easy, because we know when we fail, that He will be there to pick us up. Working under our pride, we are our own failsafe. There is no Plan B if things go wrong.
What can we do to combat pride?
We can make sure that we are putting the credit where the credit is due: with God.
Now, our names are still going to be on the bylines of our stories or in the signatures of our paintings. We’re still likely to get accolades from the people who support us and we’ll feel satisfied with what we have made. None of these things are necessarily a problem, as long as we remember who gave us the abilities and resources.
The first key to maintaining this type of humility is to fuse the idea that we cannot do anything apart from God to our bones. Every good thing — every resource we use to create, every lesson or class or mentor we’ve had, every opportunity to share our craft with others — comes directly from God (James 1:17). He is our ultimate Sponsor and Patron!
If we can keep that in mind, or if we can remember it when we start to slip into me, me, me, then we have a head start in combating pride!
The second key is to offer up our creations to God as a sacrifice.
Wait, wait, wait…do I need to burn the stuff I create??
Nope. Do not fear, I am not referring to a burnt offering!
The type of sacrifice that I refer to is giving your creation up to God, in your mind and heart, to do with what He pleases. He might make it a success, or He might not! Regardless, t is a surrender and a gift to Him, laying it at the foot of the cross. That kind of sacrifice is amazing for humbling oneself!
Putting it into Action: If you were to rank your pride in your creations on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being Supremely Humble and 10 being Megalomaniac, where would you honestly put yourself? And, additional, trick question if you ranked lower than 3, are you taking pride in your humility? Have you taken the time to acknowledge God in every blessing you have? Or have you surrendered your works to Him as a gift and offering?
