THE DILEMMA OF PRIDE vs. JOY -- Devotional for June 29, from "Good Seeds"

NOTE TO READERS -- I've been attending the Moore family reunion in Dana Point and Palos Verdes, California, in honor of my parents' 70th wedding anniversary. I've been dutifully writing the devotionals all along, but haven't always had access to the internet. With entries for June 26 - 29 I should have you all caught up. Write to me sometime and let me know if you're reading this. Thanks and God bless you!

And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.
(Genesis 1:31)

There’s a fine line between someone showing great excitement about something good he has accomplished, and boasting and bragging about it. Have you ever been in the quandary where you were so pleased with something you had created – a story, a painting, a poem, or maybe a piece of music, and you want others to revel and rejoice in it with you – and yet you are very aware of the possibility of it looking and sounding like you are tooting your own horn? This is one of those situations where you can’t win: If you do speak up, you may wind up feeling foolish if others are not as enthused about it as you are, or guilty because now you really are looking and sounding like a self-absorbed showoff. But if you don’t call attention to this really fine thing you’ve done, you become absorbed instead with the pain of an unwelcome anonymity. There is no more miserable person to be around than a walking, talking martyr. But it just doesn’t seem right that something so good, so beautiful, exists and no one knows about it. Beauty is for beholding, right? If only this piece of creative genius could have been produced by someone else, you’re thinking, then you could with unabashed pride and joy sing the praises of the work and its creator. But since it was you who did the deed, well, humility requires that you keep still about it. After all, didn’t Solomon write, “Don’t praise yourself; let others do it” (Proverbs 27:2); and didn’t Jesus say to the guy looking for the best seat in the house, “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled” (Luke 14:11)? So, it looks like you have just two choices: 1) Speak up about your accomplishments and risk falling prey to pride; or, 2) Say nothing, put your tail between your legs, and go be the sole guest at your own pity party! But wait, God goes before us, setting for us an example. He was in the same predicament that I’m describing when He finished creating the universe and sat back to examine His work. Hear what is said and find in it a third alternative to this dilemma of pride vs. joy: “Behold, it was very good.” BEHOLD! What a word! It means “look, listen, smell, touch, taste, think, enjoy” – using all of your senses, giving it all of your attention, draw near and notice something that will blow your mind, tickle your fancy and please your soul! Now, when God created the world, who could He say “behold” to? To Himself, surely, for being a trinity, there was fellowship (see verse 26). To the angels, maybe, for their creation may have predated that of the universe. But primarily He’s talking to us. If something is God made it’s not just a shame, it’s a sin, to keep quiet about it! Give God the glory for that beautiful thing He is doing in and through you, and then…toot away!