Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

This I confess because it applies to me and what happened to me. If it should in any way be a similitude of another’s life, it is not meant to point a finger.

The Lord has worked miracles in my life. I am not talking about your everyday blessings, I am talking super natural events that could only have been rendered by God. My attitude should have been gratitude and in some small part it was but the bulk of my emotions leaned towards feeling special. I took it to mean that God not only loved me but more than others around me.

I began to treat others like I was special and that they were something less. I was not humble. I looked down on others that just didn’t get it. This went on for a number of years until I realized my prayer life was bleak, tasteless, and meaningless. That was the first sign that I saw there was something wrong. How I treated others was still not a consideration. My prayer life however was all about me and I had no one to blame but myself.

The air of superiority was losing its shine. Then one day someone stood up to me and said what I needed to hear from a fellow Christian. “Don’t talk to me like that.” Nothing kills the air of superiority faster than seeing the pain I had caused another.

Causing pain was the old man who was supposedly dead and I had to admit, he wasn’t dead enough. This whole issue of dying to self had been vanity run amok. I had convinced myself I had been crucified with Christ and perhaps I had but where was the resurrected life I was supposed to be living?