Implied Spiritualities and Sneaky Resumes

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” – James 4: 4 – 10

Have you ever noticed yourself sneak yourself into a conversation, sneakily? You don’t really say what you are doing, you just do it. “When I was in Italy . . . .”  Then you go on to relate to the question of how crusty the whole wheat bread is. You are not really joining the conversation about the bread. You are doing what Carl Jung says we all, almost always, do. He says we “smuggle” our biography into everything.

We not only smuggle ourselves into the conversation; we are also so often blinded by the presuppositions of our class, race, church, parents, colleges that we don’t really think. We simply react. That by itself would not be such a problem if we would refuse to be proud about it.

Nor would smuggling of our biography into conversation be a big problem if we weren’t proud about it.

Self-satisfaction is a real problem. We can learn instead to be humble about our blinders. We can also learn to talk about the bread and openly “brag” about how it is better in Italy. We can especially brag if we keep a smile on our face and a joke in our heart about how great we really aren’t.

Prayer

O God, grant us a way to see that we don’t have to prove ourselves with you. Let us enjoy grace and forswear pride. Amen.

About the Author
Donna Schaper is Senior Minister at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Her latest book is Prayers for People Who Say They Can’t Pray.