”Pride goes before a fall”. You ever heard that phrase? It’s actually taken straight out of the bible, from Proverbs 15 verse 18 and it’s another nugget of eternally rich wisdom that reminds us not to think too much of ourselves.

Pride is one of things that blinds us to the obvious truth - much like the fable of the emperor’s clothes. So proud was that king of wearing the finest clothes in his kingdom, only to miss the obvious – he’d been tricked into wearing nothing at all, by his pride.

I knew two men who both nearly lost their loves either climbing a ladder, or fixing a shower. What was it that drove them to try? Well, perhaps saving money might have been a factor, But, ultimately, pride goes before a fall and it goes before falling from a great height and electrocuting ourselves too when you don’t take appropriate precautions like setting the ladder on a flat surface at the correct angle, or turning the power off first.

What is the opposite? Humility.

And you can’t ‘do’ humble, you can only ‘be’ humble.

I’m pretty sure that that ladder climbing or shower fixing friends of mine were humbled as equally as the intelligent physicist I knew who put the hot ashes from their BBQ straight into the bin. Which caught fire. Which they threw water on, causing an explosion from the glass bottles they’d also just put in the bin.

Just because we can doesn’t mean we should. And intelligence doesn’t equate to living longer!!

So have a care, and pursue humility, so it doesn’t end up becoming the final master of your life.

Just a thought…

Andy B