How wide?

"Open wide and say 'ah,'" I told the young man sitting across from me.

The young man obeyed and I looked at his throat with my light.  I put down my light and moved to palpate the lymph nodes in his neck.  "You probably think I opened my mouth pretty wide," Jake said.

Sure," I said.

"Well, I can open my mouth a lot wider than that!"

"Really," I said, not particularly interested.

"Do you have a pop can?" Jake asked me.

"No," I said.  That is one thing we have never kept in our exam rooms.

"Well, I can fit one of them in my mouth."

Clearly Jake was pretty proud of himself and his achievements in the pop can swallowing department.  It may not be a valuable talent, but he believed he was good at it and wanted to share that information with me.

Of course, this isn't a particularly useful skill.  I have heard of people paying to watch someone else swallow swords (I'm not sure why), but I've never heard of anyone paying money to watch someone stick the end of a soda can in his mouth.

Pride is a foolish thing.  Jake had nothing to do with how wide he could open his mouth.  He didn't do special exercises to improve his jaw flexibility.  Knowing him, he was sitting around one day and just decided to stick the end of a soda can in his mouth.

So many of the things that we are proud of are things that we were given.  Beauty, athletic ability and intelligence are talents that come from God, not things that we earned.

Even when it comes to the development of potential, so much of the credit belongs to parents, teachers and coaches who pushed us to become more than we would have otherwise.

God has given us much and we must give the glory to Him.  For it is better to be known for your humility than to open your mouth wide in pride and purely by accident, insert a soda can.