The Price Of Pride

As states scramble to balance their budgets, I suppose it was inevitable. In a Wall Street Journal article, Nancy Keates reports the following: “After years of selling vanity plates as a modest sideline—charging as little as $5—states think there's more money to be made in whatever drives people to buy them. Facing budget crunches, states are raising surcharges or proposing annual fee hikes for custom plates. Texas has gone a step further. It hired a private company to raise $25 million over the next five years by auctioning off vanity plates. "People like to express themselves, especially in Texas," says a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. This year, at the nation's first such auction, Texas sold 33 plates for $139,400...Other countries have already mined this vein, with big results. A businessman in Abu Dhabi bought a license plate with "1" at an auction for $14.3 million in 2008. Last year, in England, a retired businessman bought "1 RH"—his initials—for about $400,000. Hong Kong sold a plate that read "STORAGE" for $12,000” (online.wsj.com).

In modern usage, vanity is defined as… “excessive pride in one's appearance, qualities, abilities, (or) achievements” (dictionary.reference.com). And the price of such an attitude has ALWAYS been high. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling. It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud” (Proverbs 16:18-19). “A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor” (Proverbs 29:23). “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think ; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3).

Is it a sin to have a vanity license plate? No. Is it dangerous and costly to be consumed with pride? Yes. Can you afford it???

God loves you!
Mike