Proud

Hardly a day goes by without one of the entries on Facebook exclaiming the triumph of a child or grandchild. We shout to the mountain tops the greatness of our athlete or scholar or artist or servant. Look at what they did! We are proud of them.

And we should be.

I wonder what it would be like if we were proud when our child failed. We fail a lot in life. I wonder what it would be like if we were proud when our loved one did not triumph. There is only one first place but there are many “other” places. And someone gets last place. Are we proud of last place? What about we who produced a brood of ordinary, non-award winning families of average looks and means?

I wonder how many of us got the message that people would be proud of us AS LONG AS WE PRODUCED. I remember a sweet saint of the church who stopped coming when she was no longer “useful.” How sad. Can we love one another beyond our utility? 

God chose to reach out to us when we were at our worst. Love boasts of the shear existence, the inherent worth, of another. What if we were proud of those we loved when they were not the best? I bet it would be a better world.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: 

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Romans 5:8 (NIV)