Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Psalms 139:23
It was a beautiful labor day, the perfect kind of day to go biking with family! My husband had to work on this particular Labor Day, but my parents, aunt and uncle were biking on a beautiful stretch of trail with lots of little bridges over creeks and streams still lush with green summer foliage along their banks. I decided to meet them at the trailhead for a day filled with biking fun. Or so I thought…
We arrived at the trailhead and were busy unloading our bikes from our cars when I realized that along with these beautiful little bridges there were lots of cement poles (designed to keep motorized vehicles off of the trail). I am not a fan of those kinds of poles. Why must they be so narrow? They are intimidating. I think they work great to keep cars and 4-wheelers off of trails but they very nearly keep bicycles off too—you really have to make sure you are lined up before going through them so as not to hit one of the poles or scrap your leg on one.
We had biked quite a distance and I had made it successfully through all of the poled entrances without incident, and we had just turned around and were on our way back. I had gained some confidence over this ride and was now sailing right through those poles with hardly a second thought! Slow down for them? Please—that is for amateurs!
As we headed back to our cars there were two poles that I had to ride through—I confidently lined up my handlebars and without slowing proceeded through them. Almost. I remember having the fleeting thought that these poles were higher than the others and I just might hit my handlebar as I felt a huge jolt go through my body as I went flying over the handlebars, landing painfully on the ground. My knee and wrist broke the fall, and I landed face down on the trail. I laid there, very closely observing the asphalt trail and started to laugh. It was not because I had not gotten hurt—I had skinned myself up pretty well but rather because here I was a young 20-something biking with four geriatrics (they were all over 60) and who got hurt? Me! I should have been the fast one without balance issues but no, I was the one to misjudge and went flying over the handlebars!
We see instances of pride tripping people up all throughout scripture. Saul becomes proud and when the women sing David’s praises. It literally drives Saul crazy. We see Judas Iscariot, the respected treasurer, betray Jesus for 20 silver coins. We see Hamman build a scaffold to hang Mordecai, only for the tables to turn and instead Hamman himself is hung from this scaffold. The Bible is clear about these messages: pride goes before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). Just like I went flying over the handlebars of my bicycle so each of these people went flying and landed face down on the proverbial ground as well.
It is, of course, good and healthy to take pride in certain things in life; our family, the way we do a job, and so forth, but the harm comes when we make any of these good things an idol. Let us always have the heart David did when he wrote, “Search me oh God and know my heart.”
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