Sunday, January 10, 2010

"Pride"

This one is part of a "Seven Deadly Sins" series that I'm doing but have not finished yet. I tried to capture the effects of pride from what I knew first hand.

The young man in the picture has reached his limit with the demon. He is balled up on his knees grabbing his face and hair out of torment, because he realizes what the demon has to offer him ...and that is truly nothing but a form of pain.

If you look at where the character is sitting in the room he is in, you will see that he is just about in the corner. That is to just symbolize discomfort in his life. I don't know anyone who "likes" being in corners lol...physically or metaphorically. To show more discomfort, I put him on his knees on a hardwood floor in dark spot, again to give you this idea that he has lived some sort of life before he arrived where he is at in this picture. His life has reached a crucial point...he is realizing how he is living is not working and , or some how ended up very alone and tormented.

Now, I view pride as a demon that dwells in or tries to influence people, or has influenced all of us. I love the "Pride comes before the fall" scripture...because I have found it to be so true. In this picture "Pride" has reached his full potential in the man and is pulling himself out to show himself off. Pride is proud, arrogant, and boastful. Those are traits that we all hate but coincidentally enough, traits we tend to carry ourselves. In the picture "Pride" is attempting to fill the room with his presence, hands on his side with his chest out bowing "hot air" to stay true to his nature. Notice that he is still attached to the man though...

Like I had mentioned before, the man is at a crucial point in his life. Although he has came to the realization he has been overtaken by this sin, that still does not rid himself from it. I believe, not only by observations on other people, but first hand that the only way possible to rid yourself of any demon that can attach its self to your personality or lifestyle, is out of our power range for the most part. I believe we can do nothing with out the help of Christ in our lives...at least nothing that produces any good healthy fruit for yourself or others.

If I look back on my life and moments or occasions where I've "risen to the top", I have always seemed to "fall back to the bottom" somehow. Sometimes this is hard for me because I will think it over and a lot of times and overlook what actually made me take that fall back down. Other times it's been a little more obvious. After time goes by and a ton of pondering ...lol. I can see clearer at what it was that led me down that path... and I have to be honest with myself and accept the fact that I either gave in to pride at some point... or tried it out, however you wanna look at it.

Pride is one of those things too where it takes the effect of walking away from the dinner table with the table cloth stuck in the back of your pants. (don't ask me how it got there just pretend it is there). So imagine this with me if you will. You get up from the table and walk away from everyone else not realizing what is actually attached to ya because you are only thinking of building up yourself... so you walk off with your chin held high saying " Look at ME, look at what I did, what about ME?!, look at ME, cant stop ME", all these things we as humans have thought...the danger of only looking inward to yourself is, you tend to miss what is actually going on around you. You get up.... walk off with that table cloth still stuck to you...and leave a mess that every one else has to live with or experience as well...and a trail of some kind of destruction behind you. That could be physical or emotional...but is destruction nonetheless.

Its funny to me how many warning signs we all get in life to prevent us from thinking or acting in this way too. For instance: "there is no I in team"...those old "trust exercises"...if you don't know what those are, I'll tell ya: it's where one person stands on something high and they have a group of people underneath them. They then turn around where they cant see the people below and fall back...in hopes they catch will catch 'em. If you think about it ... any work environment you have ever been in... if they could do everything themselves...(the boss that is) then they wouldn't need to hire anyone. Right? lol . Its these small observations in life that can help you a ton, like I have said before...I haven't finished one semester in college and I'm able to see this...so I know anyone with half a brain can agree with me here and realize life isn't JUST about us. Fellowship with other people, caring for other people, and just straight up practicing that "GOLDEN RULE" we are all taught when we were little..."do unto other as you would have them do unto you",can help your life out tremendously.

Why we tend to think we can do it all by ourselves, I'll never understand. It's ironic that there are men and women with such intelligence about everything... but somehow can still miss the simple equations in life, and the most effective I think, too. The equation is this... I'm obviously not alone on this planet, so me not thinking or caring only of myself gives room for me to think or care about at LEAST 1 other person walking this great earth. If I do this ...and my "neighbor" does this as well...then we got now 4 "people just like that" that are going to be touched by this in some way...and it keeps growing.

"Stupid theory" you say?...well seems to me we already do that equation just backwards...we are taught now from day one to think and "take care" of ourselves first...the problem with that is ...we aren't able to meet ALL of our own needs...and when you think you can do it all, and push so hard to get that message out for all to see, and they see it...... people say, "OK" he's got it ... let's go"... and they leave. That then leaves you in the "Characters" place in my picture...and when you end up at the bottom, you got no choice but to look up, and ask for help ...and HE will come to your aid...He's been there the whole time... it's just hard to see when you're looking at yourself the entire time.

2 comments:

Kathleen Overby said...

Metaphors teach me...loved the table cloth/collateral damage left behind one. Wow!

Jordan Ray Murphy said...

i LOVE metaphors... i teach Mixed Martial Arts and kick boxing at a gym near by and thats really my method of explaining what to do.. i just use metaphors i think the majority of people would know... lol... but growing up in high school and well even till this day.. im known among certain friends as the Metaphor King lol... or the Analogy King.. lol just depends on who you talk to ;) but... im glad youre getting something out of me ramblin thanks =)