Grinched - part 1 - Me, Me, Me

One of my favorite holiday characters is the Grinch. Don’t ask me why, I don’t quite know the reason. But, I have always enjoyed watching the older animated version of the Dr. Seuss tale that comes on TV every year. Then in 2000, they made I live-action version of the story that brought a different life to the story. The 2000 version also shined some light on The Who’s in Whoville. But whether it’s the Grinch or The Whos there is some things that can be learned from this little story.

One of the first things we pick up on about the Grinch is that he hates Christmas and “no one quite knows the reason.” The Grinch then decides to steal Christmas and he hatches this plan out of his own pride and self-centeredness. He didn’t really care about The Whos or his dog or anything from that matter. He just didn’t want Christmas to come and it was going to be his way or the highway.[1]

In the 2000 movie, they really show the Grinch’s pride as he refuses many times to go do to town for the celebration that they are having. The reason noted in the movie is that the Grinch had been bullied when he was younger and that is why he’s up on Mount Crumpit. But his pride is what kept him there and not just his the Who’s pride as well.[2]

Pride is a big thing and it can lead us down paths that don’t provide any long term help. There are many people over the holiday season that allow their pride get in the way of seeking forgiveness from a friend or family member.

Pride is also the influence that drives our choices and if we let pride drive too long the choices that we make may not be the best of for us.

In the Bible, we see pride driven choices that did not end well for the people making them. We see a prideful choice get Lucifer cast from Heaven (Isaiah 14:12-17). We see Adam and Eve eat from the fruit of the tree because of their pride to know more and thinking that God was keeping something from them (Genesis 3). Cain killed Abel because God did not except his offering (Genesis 4). King Herod in the book of Matthew hears about the birth of Jesus and decides he wants to go “worship” the baby Jesus. But when Mary and Joseph flee with Jesus, Herod out of pride for wanting to be the only King ordered that all of the baby boys 2 years old and younger be killed (starting at Matthew 2:16).

Pride does not lead us to good places. Pride is selfish. Pride causes our focus to be away from where it should be. Pride drive us all and if we let drive us too long and too far it will not lead to a good end.

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. - Proverbs 16:18

______________________

[1] Dr. Seuss, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, 1957

[2] How The Grinch Stole Christmas, 2000 film
I would love to hear from you!!
Questions or comments... Please leave them below or email secondstagequestions@gmail.com

PLEASE VISIT THE SECOND STAGE MINISTRIES FACEBOOK PAGE - CLICK LIKE!!
PLEASE VISIT THE SECOND STAGE MINISTRIES YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Comments

God, You Failed

"God, you failed me!” Many of us have probably heard these words, thought these words, or even said these words. We get tired of waiting for God to do something. We feel like God’s inbox is full and our prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling and coming right back at us. So, in some cases and with some people, they give up and say “God, you failed me!” I feel these words in certain areas of the Bible: Peter, Paul, Moses, Joseph, the disciples and the people that followed and believed in Jesus just to watch Him get crucified. The one that is probably the most obvious is David as he writes in the Psalms about feeling abandoned by God. For this post, I was directed to a familiar story in the Gospel of John. In this story, we are going to see this happen as two women he frustrated with Jesus. The women’s names were Mary and Martha and they had a brother named Lazarus. Lazarus has talked ill and the women had sent for Jesus urging him to come quickly saying “the one yo

Eyes Up - part 5 - Patience

“...where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.... Psalm 121:1-2 NIV Ahhhh..... patience. That’s it. That’s all I have for this post. Anyone suffer from a lack of patience? I know I do and that is why I find it hard to give advice on the topic. This is why I’m not giving advice. I’m going to let God do that. I want to draw you attention to Exodus 14 for this week’s post. Moses has already been summoned by God to go back to Egypt and free the Israelites from Pharaoh. After much talking, plagues and stubbornness - Pharaoh lets the Israelites go. Moses leads them out of Egypt and they get as far as the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Pharaoh has changed his mind and is in hot pursuit of them. The people begin to grumble at Moses because of their situation. They said things like: “They said to Moses, ‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egy

Eyes Up - part 4 - Peace

“...where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.... Psalm 121:1-2 NIV There are just some things that we need help with and that is just a fact. So in this series of posts we are looking at a few of those kind of things and trying change our focus to the One that can give us true help with these things. We have been focusing in on Psalm 121:1-2 for this “Eyes Up” refocus. The psalmist realized that there is really only one true source of help and refocused attention to that source. The topic of today’s post is one that is really only found in Jesus. Peace. What is that anymore? Look around you, turn on the news or scroll Facebook/Twitter and you will see there is really no such thing as peace anymore. People are constantly at each other because of their opinions and refusing to accept one another’s views and move on with life. There is chaos in the line at Walmart because someone cut in line and instead of just letting them have the spot - a verbal fight brea

Kryptonite

“[looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus , who is the Author and Perfecter of faith....” - Hebrews 12:2 a AMP Have you ever lost focus? Maybe it was a task you were working on and one of your kids (or spouse) come into the room or called out to you from another place in the house causing you to turn your attention from what you were doing to them or their calling out. Then you look back at your task and have to remember where you were or what exactly you have done. Did I add salt to this? Did I put in the sugar for the cookies? How many cups of flour did I put in the mixing bowl already? You get the idea. Have you been there? There are times in life when we can be the same way. We are going along in life - our day to day activities - our gaze is laser focused on Jesus. Then all of a sudden something happens in our life that seemingly comes out of nowhere and takes our focus off of Jesus. We begin then to fall into the storm of what

I

Last Thursday night, I was sitting in service and Pastor Beeson started the service with a prayer. He started with the words "I need you God" and this is what came to me over the course of that opening moment of prayer. Take a minute to read these words, reflect on these words or pray these words. ---------------- I need you God I need grace I need your love I need your patience I need your forgiveness I need you God I need your joy I need your self-control I need your kindness I need your knowledge I need you God I need your strength I need your hope I need your presence I need your power I need you God I need your peace I need your goodness I need your gentleness I need your mercy I need you God I need what I am not worthy of ___________________ Questions or comments... please email secondstagequestions@gmail.com PLEASE VISIT THE SECOND STAGE MINISTRIES FACEBOOK PAGE - CLICK LIKE!! PLEASE VISIT THE SECOND STAGE MINISTRIES

Second Stage Ministries

Search This Blog

Blog Post Archive