I have had an unordinary amount of free time recently, and so
I have mainly used that time to blog. When I got to this quality, though, I
figured that I would be able to write an article on humility. Then, as I
started writing it, I realized that I didn’t even have a rudimentary
understanding of humility. This article is my discoveries about humility that I
pray are helpful to whoever may read this. I have come to realize that humility
is something that is sorely lacking in the world today, but some of the world’s
greatest people were humble. I would like to learn from people that have a
reputation for humility, and what humility is, and also the dangers of pride.
I want to
take a quick look at two people in the Bible that were humble, and see what we
can learn from them. The first person is Joseph, which I know is a typical
person to study, but he was a very humble person, and I believe that something
can learned from him. I love watching Joseph’s attitude throughout his life,
which tends to remain as a general thankfulness to God. When he had a
prestigious position in Potiphar’s house, he thanked God, when he was in jail,
he still praised God, and when he became vizier he praised God. Now, I know
that, had I been in Joseph’s position, I would’ve been sitting in jail, feeling
forgotten by God, but when I became vizier, there would be a tendency in me to
pat myself on the back (although physically impossible), telling myself that I
had gotten there myself (in spite of my evil brothers). But I think above all,
Joseph’s humility shows in Genesis 50:19, where Joseph’s brothers come before
him, begging for mercy, and he almost laughs that they thought it necessary to
do that. He asks, “Am I in the place of God?” This is translated as, “Yes, it
is true that you guys tried to kill me, but instead sold me and faked my death,
and I was sent to Egypt where I was falsely accused and thrown into jail, but
on second thought, I have done way worse by sinning against my Creator, and why
should I be taking the position of judge from God who put me in the political
position. God put me here in this position, so why should I, as a lowly servant
of God, be judging my brothers who he created and has a plan for, especially
after He delivered me from despair and death?” Joseph realized his place and
how little he was involved in the process of going from slave to vizier. The
first step to humility is realizing the enormous difference between what we
have done for God and what God has done for us.
The second
person that I want to look at is Jesus. This is one of the most amazing
examples of humility. He created this earth, and died for it, yet He comes to
earth and washes the feet of dirty, sinful humans. Jesus was well within his
rights to come and live like a king, and demand that everyone bow in His
presence, but He came and served others.
Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give His life [as] a ransom for many.” Jesus is the ultimate
model of humility. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords came to earth, and did
the job of lowly servants, suffered for wretched sinners, and eventually died
in one of the most treacherous, painful ways to die. He didn’t care about how
things should be, or how unfair things were. The second step to humility is to
strive to model Jesus’ humility.
Humility is
honestly assessing ourselves in light of God’s holiness and our sinfulness1.
C.J. Mahaney, author of Humility: True
Greatness, defines “humility” in a cut-and-dried style. This definition is
what Joseph lived out in Genesis 50:19, that looking at ourselves in the
blinding light of God’s holiness is a genuinely humbling experience. There are
two general types of humility: outward humility and inward humility. Outward
humility is the phrases such as, “Oh, it was nothing” or “Anyone could have
done it”. Attitudes such as these are false humility and they are normally
digging for reassurance on how incredible whatever that person did was. Genuine
humility is the incredible feeling of being brought to your knees by the
overwhelming realization of the difference between your incompetence and God’s
omnipotence.
To finish
this article with something practical, I want to give two examples of humility:
false and genuine.
Example 1: You make a full court shot while the entire youth
group is watching, and afterwards you are congratulated heavily. You cheeks
then turn red and you quietly mumble, “Oh, there wasn’t much to it.” The youth
leader then remarks how he appreciates your humility.
Example 2: After practicing three months for an offertory,
you play it at church, and afterwards an elderly choir member pulls you aside,
forcefully telling you that your piece was too loud and energetic. You nod and
say that you will work on that (or something of that sort) and then reevaluate
whether or not there was any truth to what the choir member said. Your action
is then based off that, and your desire to please God.
This is
probably pretty obvious which one is fake and which one is genuine.*
Fake humility is really camouflaged pride. To sum this all up in the words of
Mahaney, “[T]ransfer all the glory to [God] and experience the promise and the
pleasures of humility2.
1 C.J. Mahaney, Humility: True Greatness, pg. 22
2 C.J. Mahaney, Humility: True Greatness, pg. 170
* If you’re still stumped one which is which, I’ll give
you a cheat: the first is false humility, and the second is genuine humility.
No comments:
Post a Comment