Upside down

Pride. The word is so easily written, so easily said, so easily experienced. My heart is filled with pride. Some of my pride is the good kind, pride in a job well done, pride in ones spouse or children, pride in my country. But intermingled with this is the ugly kind of pride. Thinking more highly of myself than I ought. Thinking myself better than others, always silently measuring myself and my accomplishments next to another's. Even measuring my worth with my home and my "stuff". Pride, the ultimate sin, the thing God hates. One passage of scripture calls it haughty eyes. Just those words give me an image that makes me feel uncomfortable. Someone looking down on someone else. Oh that I would never make someone feel that way. I have been studying Daniel. There are several examples of prideful people in those pages. Men who were given such great empires, such power. They mistakenly thought they rose by their own power. Each were brought down in due time. Some humbled, some lost their lives to their prideful ways. In contrast is Daniel. A man who was dedicated to God, who was a man of prayer, a man who studied the word of God, a man who always gave God the glory. A humble man.
A man that God raised up to be the top advisor to the king. It is so amazing to me how God always turns things upside down. We want to be first, then be last and the servant to all. We want to be lifted up, then humble yourself. We want to live, then die to yourself. Do you want to be rich, then give abundantly to the poor. I want to live this kind of upside down life. Crazy.