What Goes Up Must Come Down ... Eventually

Back in the day, I used to be an advocate in the labour arbitration field. During my first year, I won every case. Winning did much to boost my confidence in my new career choice, but what I would soon realize was that there is a fine line between confidence and conceit; I crossed that line. At the beginning of my second year, I was scheduled to argue 3 cases before the arbitrator. I was ready; I was ready to mop up the floor with my adversary. By the end of the morning my confidence that had quickly turned into conceit was just as quickly being turned into humiliation as I was knocked down a peg or two … or three … all three, in fact. I paid a visit to my boss after the arbitration. I sat sunk into the chair in front of his desk – completely dejected – and announced the results to him. “Good!” He said. “Good on you!” Uh, hello! Did you hear me correctly? He smiled as he told me that to be a winner, I had to learn how to lose; he was more than happy to help me out in that respect. Pride is like a hot air balloon. A proud person never expects to land in a cactus field, but WHEN they do they can choose to do one of two things: they can criticize, condemn and complain about the landing; or they can praise God that they’ve been corrected and start pulling out the needles. What goes up must come down … eventually. Let the record show there were many more losses after that day but I chose to count them all as wins in my spirit. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall,” Proverbs 16:18.