No!  I’m not hopping on today’s popular “Pride” band-wagon – that’s Pride with a capital ‘P’.  You know what I mean – the Pride that's celebrated annually in Sydney’s Mardi Gras Parade every March.  No, I’m talking about ordinary old kitchen-variety pride, which used to be regarded as one of the seven infamous deadly sins.

What brought this on...?  Well, I’m putting some thoughts together for this blog in the week when that innovative submersible, the Titan, was lost while examining the wreck of the Titanic.  It’s a tragic story of five lives lost – one of them, a young man just nineteen years old.

Several news commentators have told how the founder of the company responsible for this tragedy, Stockton Rush, avoided conventional ways of licensing his submersible vehicle for what it was supposed to do.  To put it crudely: such safety checks cramped his style.  He wanted to do his own thing and was confident of his success without having to have others check and approve his work.

Actually, there are some intriguing parallels.  In 1912 the captain of the Titanic ignored repeated warnings about icebergs ahead.  On a moonless night he steamed full speed into an icefield.  It’s alleged that many had also warned Stockton Rush.  There were grave risks that he was taking with his carbon-fibre submersible.  Others claimed he was keen to take British billionaire, Hamish Harding, down to see the wreck with the objective of attracting from him further funding for his company, OceanGate Expeditions.

It seems obvious to me that pride once again reared its ugly head.  It did that when the Titanic was launched.  There are reports that at the launch an engineer boasted to reporters about this ship that even God would not be able to sink her.  I guess God proved them wrong.

Right now I could give you numerous examples of pride from the Bible... and numerous examples of how God humbled the proud.  The Philistine army taunted the Israelites and challenged anyone to come and tackle their giant, Goliath.  But the day came when their giant lay dead and decapitated on the battle-field – the victim of a young lad with a slingshot.  That lad spoke some powerful truth that day: The battle belongs to the Lord.  Philistine pride was not just humbled, it was totally humiliated.

I could mention the great king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  He bragged: “Is not this the mighty Babylon that I have built?”  But in that moment the Lord God humbled the proud Nebuchadnezzar and he spent seven seasons with the wild animals before his mind was restored.

We human beings have a long history of battling pride.  It all began when our first parents Adam and Eve swallowed the lie that by flouting God’s instructions we would ourselves become gods.  Today pride is still there – not only in the wreck of the Titanic and the implosion of the Titan.  It’s there at every funeral where mourners are subjected to Frank Sinatra’s self-indulgent song: “I did it my way!”  Pride is there when people say, “There is no God!” – as if they’ve been able to look for Him under every rock in the universe at precisely the same time.

So, what’s the answer to our problem with pride?  And it is a problem.  The Bible is full of warnings to people who will not humble themselves.

The apostle Peter once said: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.  Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”  That’s a very pertinent warning but it leaves us with the million dollar question: How do we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God?  The answer begins with faith in Jesus.  We trust in the Son of God who humbled himself, took on our humanity and gave his life in an agonising and cruel death.  All of that humility – in order to cure us of our domineering pride.

Today Jesus still gives us the invitation: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

John Westendorp