Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Wise sages inform us that our self focus, our egotistical devotion to self encourages us to focus entirely on all that addresses our wants, our ambitions over riding any thought that another, or others may benefit from sharing something of our good fortune with them.
Egotism is the anesthetic which nature gives us to deaden the pain of being a fool. ~ Herbert Shofield
Paul of Tarsus was the rising star of The Sanhedrin, an intellectual genius devoted to serving the Laws of Moses.
Paul knew the Mosaic Laws inside, out with the added awareness that his persuasive tongue served his ambition to bag the top job in The Sanhedrin granting him absolute power over the Jewish people.
That fateful journey on the road to Damascus to detain Nazarenes guilty of following Jesus of Nazareth obliged Paul to confront Jesus speaking to Him, pleading with him to stop persecuting Him.
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Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest
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and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
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As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
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He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
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"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied.
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"Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
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The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.
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Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. ~ Acts 9
Paul of Tarsus quickly understood that everything that he had learned over many years was as nothing, compared to the numinous event that had blinded him temporarily, leading him to open his eyes to reality per his new life in the care of The Saviour until his life's story was completed.
“When the ego dies, the soul awakes.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
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