pride: the plug that keeps us from emptying

We are created in God's image and called to follow Him...
emptying ourselves for others out of love...
a feat virtually impossible for us...

pride... our downfall...

something God doesn't have...

A writer in World:
     Jesus stepped down, inconceivably down, to love. As if being wrapped in rags and placed in a feeding trough were not enough, He descended still further to a degrading death. The kind of death intended to reduce a human being to a piece of screaming meat: all dignity, all identity, even, consumed in a crawl of minutes. It would merely be pitiable if a well-meaning savior had stumbled into a death like that. But to volunteer for it, to actually debase Himself to such an extent -- didn't he have any pride?
     Well, no. Pride belongs to humans, not God. He doesn't need it. It's the pedestal we build to elevate ourselves, but He who makes the earth His footstool could hardly elevate Himself further.

Pride keeps us from stooping low...
from loving others more than ourselves...

I often hear people say that God doesn't expect us to be a doormat... we aren't supposed to let people walk all over us...
but Jesus...
He was the biggest doormat of all...
the world's filth -- past, present, future -- smeared all over Him...

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

I have put my Spirit upon him;

he will bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,

or make it heard in the street;

a bruised reed he will not break,

and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;

he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be discouraged

till he has established justice in the earth;

and the coastlands wait for his law.

Isaiah 42:1-4

ESV

a humble Savior...
no pride...
only love...

How are we supposed to follow that?