Family Fallout

I can't remember the last time I spent as much time with my family as I have for the past 48 hours. I love my family (both immediate and extended) but never took it upon myself to simply sit down and talk with them. Things have been different of late.

The reason I spent so much time with my aunts yesterday was not on my own accord. Instead, it was due to the fact that I had to directly address certain issues regarding our family. I stated to every single one of them that I came simply to bring clarity. You see, much drama has been going on of late and I've concluded (from my conversations with many involved in the situation) that the overwhelming majority of this drama has stemmed from misinformation. Put simply, it's been one big mess of he said/she said. I talked with my mom and dad about it this morning, and the cheif response was plain disappointment.

The luxury of having a really great lolo and lola was that they are quintessentially the glue of the family. In times of conflict and times of peace, having a grounded lolo/lola in the family serves as a common denominator. Add to that the fact that the Godoy family has the rich blessing of our lolo and lola and we ended up having a family that was knit together well right from the very start.

Now both of those saints are celebrating kingdom life. In contrast, we're currently experiencing dissenssion. What I've found so ironic is that many of the same annoyances and bitterness is rearing its head in our family in much the same way it did in the drama with Glorie's family. One party feels betrayed by another party. Others want to pretend like nothing has happened and refuses to even acknowledge the fact that they made a mistake. A plethora of spectators want to be active participants in the cast but end up complicating things in the process. Message after message gets misconstrued and the end result is the same--a ridiculous mess.

I've concluded, being witness to these heavy events two times too many, that pride is the ultimate catalyst to ugliness. Beth Moore once said that Pride is the ultimate anti-God attitude and I couldn't agree more. Pride is what makes people refuse to say sorry. Pride is what transforms men of character into prodigal sons. In sum, pride is the sustained train of thought that only dwells upon the line "me first." This, of course, is completely contrary to the Christian teaching of considering others better than yourself. It's unnatural...that's why it's so hard to do.

This is not to say that there isn't a distinction between pride and being passionate. There's nothing wrong with being passionate about your country or your favorite sports team. Rather, when you have "national pride" or "Bulldog pride" what you mean to say is that you are not apologetic about who you are and what you believe. The contrast is simply this: pride doesn't care whom it steps on to achieve what it wants; passion does nothing but care about what it's stepping on.

In any case pride is clearly at work here in my life. There's still lingering pride in some of my family just as there is with Glorie's family. I'm pretty sure there's pride in my life that I haven't even identified yet. So, with all that said, many will ultimately end up asking "if pride is so poisonous how do you get rid of it?" The answer to that is simple.


Love.