The Pacific Garden Mission, founded in 1877 on the notorious Whiskey Row in Chicago’s South Loop, is the oldest continuously-serving rescue mission in America. It was the first place I preached after my honeymoon more than 50 years ago.
Following the service, I chatted with the attendees. One man, a former medical doctor, had lost his license, career, family, wealth, and health through drugs. The one thing he hadn’t lost? His pride! He wouldn’t shake my hand.
Sin and failure may humiliate a man, but they don’t produce humility. Only God’s grace can do that. In fact, at the heart of all sin is pride. Pride brought everything crashing down in the first place.
Satan is called “king over all the children of pride.” (Job 41:34) Pride is the mistress of all mayhem; humility is the handmaiden of true greatness.
We use the word “pride” rather loosely, sometimes when we actually mean we’re grateful or thankful for someone or something. But in the Bible pride is never a good thing.
In our increasingly godless world, pride is now promoted, admired, emulated. However, it’s still true that “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)
Jesus said humility is the one factor that determines your place in His kingdom. Not love. Not faith. Not good works. Humility. “Unless you are converted and become as little children,” He said, “you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3-4)
One reason God sent His Son into our fallen world was to teach us the beauty and blessings in humility. “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.” (Philippians 2:8-9) Someday you and I will bow before that throne.
Have you heard the clever line, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time”? I’ve quoted it myself, and I know what Mississippi’s Zig Ziglar meant when he said it. But now I beg to disagree.
There’s a difference between those who are aimless (the ones to whom Zig was actually referring) and people who actually aim at nothing. Aiming at nothing is our greatest challenge.
Why would we do such a thing? John explains, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) The secret of being filled with God’s goodness, and Christ’s likeness, and the Spirit’s empowerment, is relinquishing what makes me my own worst enemy—selfishness.
People full of themselves have no room for the Savior. This is deadly. And the lie in much religious thinking is that you can have a little of Jesus while still living for yourself.
Calvary tells a different story. Christ’s cross is the end of old prideful me. “I have been crucified with Christ.” (Galatians 2:20) But that’s only half the story. Now, “Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live…I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Aiming at nothing is God’s way for us to enjoy His everything. Paul’s formula couldn’t be any simpler: Not I, but Christ. And nothing could be better than that.
Article published Saturday, September 20, 2025 in the Commercial Dispatch.