Proposition #1: most of the time most of us have no idea why we really behave that we do. Few of us are in touch with what genuinely drives or motivates our actions or activities, big or small.
Proposition #2: if/when we actually do this soul-searching work, most of us find that at the root of it all is fear. We're afraid of being rejected, disrespected, being overlooked, being insignificant, being disliked, and any number of other things, sometimes in dizzying combination.
Proposition #3: What comes across as pride or arrogance to those around us is just the opposite side of this same fear-driven coin. For example, we grasp for a promotion because at the root of it we're afraid that we're insignificant if we don't get it. That's fear, presenting itself as annoying arrogance. For some of you, fear drives you to withdraw, for others, it drives you to scrap and claw. But it's the same energy fueling the different responses.
Proposition #4: Fear is a basic survival instinct that serves us when being attacked by rabid chinchillas. But otherwise, it makes for a terrible life-guide. Most every decision that is run by fear bears only the fruit of fear: anxiety, worry, doubt, insecurity only increase in power the more we allow fear to run the show.
Proposition #5: The only way to live a life that is genuinely flourishing is to uproot fear from its place of power in our lives and deliberately replace it with something else.
Proposition #6: The Christian response to this problem is the love of God expressed to us in Christ. The apostle John writes that "perfect love casts out fear."
Proposition #7: This is much easier said than done. Living with a greater sense of the reality of the Perfect Love of God than the default operating system of fear in our souls is like learning a completely new culture while remaining in your original one. It would be like a white guy trying to become Chinese while living in an all-white corn farm community in Nebraska.
Proposition #8: This is why community and spiritual disciplines matter. These are the means of grace to teach us this new culture--this "kingdom of God" that Jesus invites us into. Without these things shaping and re-shaping us, we will default into a life poorly lived under the functional lordship of fear rather than the life well-lived under the gracious rule of Christ.
But this is getting way ahead of ourselves. First I'd suggest you see if proposition one and two fit. Then we can talk about the rest of it.
And as a public service, I'd suggest that you get your pet chinchillas their rabies shots.
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