MIDNIGHT NINJA

My wife is a light sleeper.  I am not.  You could drive a tractor through our bedroom while I am asleep and I will sleep right through it.  However, my lovely wife can detect a change in cabin pressure when a car drives down our road.  Then it might take an hour for her to fall back asleep.  If she gets up in the middle of the night, she can flip on the lights and do whatever she wants to.  I will never know.

If I am up while she is asleep, I must attempt to maneuver around with the stealth of some kind of midnight Ninja.  No lights - no sounds - move slowly - do not breathe.  Sensing a presence in the dark is one of her spiritual gifts.  I will think I have crushed it and suddenly, in the pitch dark, she will blurt out, "So did you just want me to get up?!?"

I made it a personal challenge many years ago that I would see how long and how far I can go in the dark.  The goal is to walk around our bedroom in the dark without bumping into something or stumbling.  

I tell myself: "I know where everything is anyway.  I don't need the light.  I know where that basket of laundry is sitting.  I know where the treadmill is, when to reach for the door knob... "  

I could use my cell phone for a night light.  But, pride tells me I can make it in the pitch dark without a night light.  Only children need a night light.

Then I bump into the bed and wake her up.  Then, 30 seconds later, pride is right back at it, telling me I can make it in the dark.  I don't need a night light.  Then I stub my toe on that box by the closet.  I say to myself, "I should have used a light."  Then, 30 seconds later, pride says:  "You don't need a light!  You've totally got this!"

We don't want to admit that we can get lost in the dark.  Loaded up with self-confidence and pride, we rely on our own memory and Ninja navigational skills.  

We think we know all we need to know.  What happens?  We stumble over stumbling blocks.  We fall.  Solomon wrote, in his Proverbs for his children, that essentially, pride actually leads us to fall.  Can I just tell ya something?  Pride gives us a false security in ourselves which is why we fall.  We must put our faith and sense of security in the Lord.  Paul says we should boast in Jesus rather than ourselves.  

Prayer -
Father, You alone provide the only real and lasting sense of security.  Please forgive me for putting too much faith in my own abilities.  Forgive me for boasting in myself.  Thank You for the promise to never leave nor forsake me.  Amen.

Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.  
-- Proverbs 16:18 (CSB)

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