Are You A Self-Made Person?

I got to thinkin' last night---actually, around 2:00 this morning during one of my mini wake-up spells---about how so many of us think of ourselves as "self-made".  If I have heard that attitude from my friends and acquaintances once, I have heard it ten thousand times over the years.  And yes, there was a time when I, too, was guilty.

And why not?  It is understandable. I mean, after all, we do live in a society that has always preached self-reliance and rewarded those who persevere.  If someone works hard and overcomes adversity and reaps the rewards of that effort, they naturally feel pretty good about themselves and tend to see themselves as "self-made".

But, in my foggy early morning mind, something deeper occurred to me:  anyone who sees themselves as self-made is arrogant and not in touch with reality.

Not a single one of us on this relatively insignificant planet had anything whatever to do with the following:

---Where we were born
---When we were born
---To whom we were born
---The financial circumstances into which we were born
---The stability of the family unit into which we were born
---The vitality of our individual gene pools
---Our names

This list, of course, could continue.  My point is this:  without catching some pretty significant breaks here and there in life---breaks we ourselves had nothing to do with---where would we be?

What of God?  Do you think He deserves some credit?  Do you think God appreciates arrogance?