Have you ever had the pleasure of raising a litter of puppies? My family has been doing that since December 11th. It’s our first litter of French Bulldogs with our family breeding business, BlueCairo Frenchies. It’s amazing to watch the pups’ growth and development every week, going from helpless and complete dependence to eyes-wide-open and on-the-go independence.
One of the most interesting dynamics is how they stick together and love each other’s company. They eat together, sleep together, play together, and cuddle constantly. It seems like they genuinely enjoy each other’s company and relationship. They are one litter, one pack, one team. It’s a beautiful testimony about living in harmony with each other. It’s also a solemn reminder of how far the human race has fallen from grace.
Evil loves discord. It loves when human relationships are broken and dysfunctional, and it seeks to do all it can to prevent us from having happy, healthy relationships and high-functioning, cohesive teams.
There’s much talk about teams today in business. In fact, “team” is one of the most overused words. In most companies, it’s lip service. In the worst cases, it’s lipstick on upper lip “top line” and bottom lip “bottom line” motives. The root cause of this epidemic is pride because pride severs all trust, the foundation of all healthy relationships and cohesive teams. Here’s what C. S. Lewis had to say about pride in 1942 when asked, “What is the great sin? What sin is worse than any other?“
There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.
According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison. It was through pride that the Devil became the Devil: Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind.
C. S. Lewis, in fall of 1942 as part of a series of talks covering Christian behavior, including morality, sexual morality, forgiveness, faith, and “The Great Sin.”
The problem with pride is as humans become more and more successful, we tend to rely on God less and less – and more on ourselves. Our egos sop up success like a buttery roll sops up the gravy on a Thanksgiving dinner plate. This is how the Devil became the Devil. His overinflated pride lead to a complete anti-God state of mind. And evil loves company, which is why it loves to see broken, dysfunctional, human relationships and teams.
I am grateful for the litter of Frenchies, which not only gave my family one of the most memorable holiday seasons, but also was a timely reminder of how relationships and teams can function in the absence of pride.
MindWolves 