Humility is hard for us, isn’t it? After all, we are blasted with the message “You deserve this.” But do we really understand what it means to be humble? Is your belief that being humble means you should walk around with your head down?
Being humble, as the Bible describes it, does not mean we are everyone’s servant. Rather it means we are not proud or arrogant. It means we don’t think higher of ourselves than we do others. It means taking a reality check.
Too often, we compare ourselves to others. This creates all kinds of problems. We become jealous of those with certain talents or skills. We are jealous of those we think are beautiful. We are jealous of those we think are wealthy. We long to be someone we are not.
Comparison also causes us to judge others. We look down on those who are not as smart as we are. We don’t want to be around those we think are less than we are. Our view of others is tainted with a worldly point of view.
Oh, we can, and will, say there are systemic problems in our society. We will talk about how certain types of people are discriminated against. Yet, we won’t go into their neighborhoods. When “one of them” comes near us, we are on alert, watching them closely, even if only out of the corner of our eye. Now, make no mistake about it, I’m not advocating being careless. Yet, the person we are looking down on is also a child of God.
It isn’t really about the other person being of lower standing than us, it is about our haughty attitude. It is about our high opinion of ourselves. It is about our pride and our total lack of willingness to look at the other person as an equal. Again, we are blasted with the message that we deserve better, implying we are better than others—and we listen to it, feeding our psyche and pride.
It is only when we start seeing every person as someone God loves and cares for that we can begin to change our attitude about ourselves. It is only when we are willing to set aside our pride and arrogance that we can start to have a caring heart like Jesus. It is only when our heart has been changed that we will become a person of action, doing what God wants us to do. Then we will be a humble person who represents Jesus here on earth.
I pray we all rid ourselves of pride and arrogance. I pray we see others as children of God. I pray each of us clothes ourselves in humility and become a true representative of Jesus. Throw away your pride. Rid yourself of arrogance. See everyone as a child of God. Be humble. Put the love of Jesus into action.
Philippians 2:3-4 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Marty Pressey 