Humility

Humility

June 1, 2016
Jeff Lampl

“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.  Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.  Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.”    

Philippians 2:5-7 (NLT)

Humility can’t be obtained by deciding to be humble.  I consider that to be impossible.   In fact it is worth asking if . .  . .

 . . .humility is even attainable at all.  If we seek to become humble I doubt that any of us can ever get there.  Why?  Because we’re seeking the wrong thing.   The moment we seek something other than God himself is the very same moment that I have created an idol.  To seek a Christ-like quality is to elevate that quality above Christ.   Jesus did not come to earth to become a divine model for us to follow.   He came to earth to forgive us from our sin (of pride and selfishness) and then to replace that old prideful self with Himself.   My task is to let him take me over, not to practice new behaviors which make me look and feel good but are, in the end, only a new veneer on the same old me.

I have learned that the only way to make any progress toward humility is to focus on Christ and others.   When I have (ever so brief moments) of self-forgetfulness, and when I (all too rarely) do what I don’t feel like doing for the sake of God and others, it is at those times that Christ begins to grow something new in me, something different, something which, as it grows, squeezes out the old selfishness, even if only for brief moments.

Humility is only approached indirectly.   Frankly I can’t even write this without pride seeping in.   I might think, these words that I writing are good, I’m making my point, I am sharing my wisdom, admitting my pride, displaying humility, but as I do so I begin to feel proud of feeling a little bit humble.  I’ve discovered I can’t get there from here!

But I can treat someone else as better than I am at any given moment (while confessing my pride at having done so after having done so!).    I can feel remorse, humiliation and pain at recognizing my pride when I see it.  I can let it hurt, and in doing so meet God, who is there with the most incredible Gospel message, “Jeff never ever, ever, ever forget.  In and through Christ there is no condemnation!   Jesus does not condemn you.   Nor do I.”

“Lord, help me to experience the pain of my pride, the pain of seeing it in me and the pain that it causes others.  May I no longer be shocked at my sinfulness,  yet may my sin remain as painful to me as it is to you.  And Lord, may that recognition make the joy of your salvation ever and ever sweeter.   Amen”

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