My young son
and I love to build together. We have spent many afternoons using our bountiful
supply of preschool sized lego to build houses, bridges, towers, spaceships…you
name it, we’ve built it. The past few days, my son has become adamant that it
must be possible for us to build a tower that goes from the floor all the way
to the ceiling. The first day we attempted this, we went with the theory of
building it as quickly as possible. We attempted to make one large single cube
block tower to see how high we could get. I don’t think we ever made it
past a few feet tall with that tower and that was with me holding on to it the
entire time. Without a strong foundation and some supports to brace the blocks,
the tower was just not strong enough.
On day two I
managed to convince my junior architect that we needed to build some supports
around the single cubes to help keep them standing straight. We did much better with this tower. We managed
to get up to about five feet tall before I had to hold onto the tower at all
times so that it would not fall. Eventually, we started running low on blocks
so we abandoned the outer supports and went for the single cube ceiling touch.
No matter how hard we tried, we could not get it to stay standing up. It crashed to the
ground and we were done for the day.
Today, I
decided that we were going to continue as far as we could with the outer
supports and just see how close we could get to the ceiling...
.
We managed
to build a tower that not only stood on its own, it also was only a few more
blocks away from touching ceiling. If
you take a look at that picture, my son was so proud of what we had
accomplished. So was I! “Man, this is the coolest tower we have ever built! We
are lego tower building geniuses! I’m so proud!” Proud…pride…pride comes before
the fall…
“First pride, then the crash – the
bigger the ego, the harder the fall.” (Proverbs 16:18 MSG)
If I’m being
honest, the entire three days we were working on these towers I kept thinking
about the tower of Babel. Here was a
group of people united in goal. “They said, ‘Come, let’s build a great city for
ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and
keep us from being scattered all over the world’.” (Genesis 11:4 NLT) We do not know how far the people of Babel
got on their tower but we do know that God took notice of what they were
building. It was not the tower that was
being built that concerned Him, it was the pride that they were building within
themselves. Remember, they were building for themselves. To humble them, God came and gave different languages to confuse
and scatter them.
You may be
wondering what the big deal about pride is. Why does God oppose pride so much? Let’s
define the word to start:
Pride - A feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from
one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely
associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired. (Oxford
Dictionary, US English version)
God’s issue
with pride is that it takes our eyes off of Him. We can feel something towards
God for His accomplishments and His qualities - this is called “fear of the
Lord”. That feeling towards God is what leads us to giving Him glory, honor and
praise. That feeling is what causes us to humble ourselves before Him. When
this feeling is not directed towards God and is instead turned back upon us it
becomes pride. This is when we place ourselves in a place of honor above God.
Isaiah spoke
of this pride: “For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my
throne above God’s stars, I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away
in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’"
(Isaiah 14:13-14 NLT)
Ezekiel also wrote on this pride: “Your heart
was filled with pride because of all your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for
the sake of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth and exposed you to the
curious gaze of kings.” (Ezekiel 28:17 NLT)
These verses from the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel were words given to them by the
Lord to serve as messages to the kings of Babylon and Tyre. God was referencing
the fall from heaven of a “mighty guardian” or “shining star”. God wanted them to see that as pride can be
the downfall of a heavenly being, so can it be the downfall of a mere man, no
matter how wealthy or powerful they may seem to be.
I am made
aware that towers continue to be a symbol of pride. Every time I drive into
Toronto I find myself looking for the CN Tower. It is a symbol of pride to the
city of Toronto. Even by simply searching Toronto on Google in images you will flood your screen with pictures of the famous tower. If you search another famous city, New York,
in Google images you will again find yourself barraged with images of skylines
filled with the many famous towers, buildings and statues of the city. It should
not serve as a surprise that the terrorists of 9/11 used the famous towers of
the New York skyline to strike a blow on the pride of the United States. It
also does not surprise me that new towers are being built on the same ground as
the first ones to serve as a symbol of the rebuilding of the pride of the
nation.
The fame of
buildings does not stop in North America. Cities such as Dubai, Mecca, and Taipei
hold their towers in high regards as the pride of their cities. Browsing the
websites of these cities' towers, you will find words such as “world-class”, “magnificent”
and “masterpiece” to describe them. Not every building attempted has been so successful.
Cities such as Pyongyang, Bangkok, Krakow, and Caracas are home to buildings
that have been abandoned in an unfinished state. These buildings serve as
eyesores and embarrassments to these cities. No wonder buildings were so often
used in parables and metaphors to send us a message.
“Unless the Lord builds a house, the
work of the builders is useless”
(Psalms 127:1 NLT)
“But don’t begin until you count the
cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting
estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money to pay the bills?
Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of funds.
And then how everyone would laugh at you!”
(Luke 14:28-29 NLT)
“For every house has a builder, but
God is the one who made everything.”
(Hebrews 3:4 NLT)
“Anyone who listens to my teaching
and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though
the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against
that house, it won’t collapse, because it is built on rock. But anyone who
hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house
on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house,
it will fall with a mighty crash.”
(Matthew 7:24-27 NLT)
My son and I
had fun building the tower today but right after we took a picture of it we took it
apart before it could fall down. The towers we build do not signify how
intelligent, powerful, wealthy or cool we may be. But the
damage done when the towers fall will show how high our pride has taken us.
“First pride, then the crash – the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.” (Proverbs 16:18 MSG)
"Don't be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn your back on evil"
(Proverbs 3:7 NLT)
With love always,
Mike
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