Some Fruits of Solitude by William Penn 3: Pride (18-27)
Bonus:
Summary: Pride=Ignorance
Commentary:
18. We take a lot of pride in ourselves, but we're only temporary.
19. No one has a good reason for being ignorant of themself.
20. The value of a gift determines how we should respond to it. If you're ignorant of the worth, you can't respond properly.
21. If you don't know yourself, how can you know you creator? Think of how amazing and complex you are, how all the body parts fit together, how your soul animates and lives in them. We should appreciate God more for how well designed we are. But we don't, because we don't.
22. We want people to obey us, but won't obey God. And God is much more above the highest man than the highest man is above the lowest.
23. Humans are cruel and impatient with each other, but God is infinitely patient. (Except all the smiting...)
24. We try to make our bodies pretty, but not our souls.
25. We get nervous and try to show respect to important people, but not to God.
26. When we pray "thy will be done" we mean our own. Or at least act that way.
27. Instead of beginning with God and ending with the world. God should be both Alpha and Omega.
Ignorance of God=Pride isn't indefensible, it's just super specific. I guess you could mostly expand these to a broader concept of "creation" or "order" or something.
26 is the best one. In the original:
26. In his Prayers he says, Thy Will be done: But means his own: At least acts so.
Definitely acceptable as background narration while your warrior monk, holy assassin, etc. preps to go murder heretics or whoever.
It's definitely one of the weird parts about praying, and something I remember struggling with some in my Sunday school days. "Hey God, please do this thing. If it's what you were going to do anyway, omnipotent, omniscient, dude who sort of listens to me."
The standard response is that God works in mysterious ways, and you just thought you wanted God to grant your prayer, but it'll be worth it when the opposite happens in the long run.
You're just a cosmic child, you don't know any better.
Topic List: Ignorance, Education, Pride
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