Pride Simply Leaves Apples Out to Rot

      

    “True-hearted Men, they will not be corrupted. We of Minas Tirith have been staunch through long years of trial. We do not desire the power of the wizard-lords, only strength to defend ourselves, strength in a just cause.”

– Boromir, from the Fellowship of the Ring

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“EMILY!!!”

I heard the shout. I closed my eyes and cringed. “Shoot – I did it again!” 

“Yeah, Ma?” I said – acting like I didn’t know what was up. The mess of Algebra and Vocabulary books, water, brown half-eaten apple, and papers spoke for themselves after all. “You didn’t clean up your mess from school.” It’s just a habit, so immediately my boxing gloves went up in defense instead of owning up. “Oh that! I was gonna clean it up – I just had to do this and that and then I had to do yada yada yada and then I was gonna clean it up. So, I really had it in my mind to do it! It was like right there,”I justified. Mom sighs.

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It happens a lot in my life. Mom, Dad, or Ally tell me to do something (Ally has to ask :P), I forget, and I justify myself like mad instead of owning up to the mistake and moving on. Sometimes it makes the situation worse. My Boxing Gloves are always getting in the way.

I guess it’s a pride thing.

Most of everyone who has read the Lord of the Rings trilogy has to remember the egotistic and proud character called Boromir.

According to Tolkien, Boromir is a strong, valiant man of Minas Tirith – and the son of Denethor: Gondor’s King. A born leader and fighter of justice. He bears a large horn that blows when trouble comes.

Clearly, this guy is something special. And he certainly thought so, too.

From his first appearance in the Counsel of Elrond, he shows his interest in the Ring, tells of how great his people are and how they’ve protected many nations; in the film he confronts Aragorn and declares the Quest of the Ring folly with the famous line “…one does not simply…” (Note: I use that a lot :D)

Because of Boromir’s ignorance to heed the fact that the Ring is powerful and dangerous, his full-of-himself attitude sends him to the grave when he tried to take it from Frodo by force.

Fellow Lord of the Rings junkie Sarah Arthur put it this way:

       “…Boromir reacts to Gandalf much like the person who believes his house to be solid: annoyed when someone suggests that the foundation might be unstable. If a homeowner is wise – and humble enough to admit there might be a problem – he will inspect the matter; he will admit that something is possibly wrong. But Boromir fails to do so until there are a several Orc arrows in his chest.”

– Sarah Arthur, From the Walking with Frodo Devotional (love this book)

He seems to take after his father Denethor in that way.

In the Return of the King, Gandalf and Pippin ride to Gondor and beseech Denethor heavily to go to battle and call for aid. Denethor simply ignores these words, tries to get rid of Gandalf’s sage wisdom, and wallows in his sorrows over losing his favorite son, Boromir.

In the end, he receives the same fate as his son: death. The only difference was the death was suicide.

The Bible clearly states that a pride person will fall hard. In fact, it’s one of the seven things God hates! Yes, hates.

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         These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood…

-Proverbs 6:16-17

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The proud man will fall – God reminds us that many times in his word. Just like Boromir and Denethor. Alike Gandalf, God will confront us in the forms of our mothers and fathers reminding us to throw away rotting apples and shape up our spoiled, irrational attitudes. We fight for our way and try to squirm out of rules and chores put in place for millions of reasons.

Although Boromir and Denethor fail to remain humble, there is still one in their family who remains full of humility and integrity: Faramir.

Faramir is awesome. I think he’s probably one of my favorite Tolkien characters. The guy has righteous virtues, fights for the right reasons, and never raises a fuss even when his father unjustly wishes for Faramir to have died in Boromir’s place (really, that’s like wrong). Even after almost dying, he still gets up and makes the wrong right. Plus, he marries Eowyn.

In our world today, us as girls and guys, we’re mostly Denethors and Boromirs. We fight and justify our wrongs and put up our fighting gloves whenever we make mistakes and get confronted. We try to shoo away help and wisdom from our elders or even from our little sisters and brothers! In the end, we will be humbled just as those two stewards of Gondor were.

Will we be the Boromirs who don’t admit fault until we’re pierced and fallen with darts from the enemy due to our foolishness, or we could become Faramirs; eat humble pie, kill orcs and fellbeasts, and best of all, change the world!

I choose the latter. Besides, pride just leaves apples out to rot.

Arrivederci,

Emily 🙂

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       In the same way you younger people must submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you must put on the apron of humility, to serve one another; for the scripture says, “God resists the proud, but shows favor to the humble.”

– 1 Peter 5:5 (GNT)