Humility has gotten a bad rap

In John 8:12, Jesus calls us to follow Him, promising that we will “never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” For the past few weeks (see blog archives), we’ve considered that to reflect ‘the light of life,’ we need to …

·         live a life of love

·         live a life of integrity

·         live a life of goodness

Staying with the acrostic theme (using the letters in the word ‘light’), we also need to live a life of humility.

LIFE OF HUMILITY

Humility has gotten a bum rap.

Somewhere along the way we starting giving prizes for ‘most boisterous’ or ‘arrogant,’ and downplaying the ‘most considerate’ or ‘humble.’ We seem to have forgotten Jesus’ words: The first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Or when Peter reminded us in 1 Peter 5:5-7 …

Clothe yourselves … with humility toward one another for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that, at the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.

Do you remember Peter’s story?

He is typically remembered as the ‘leader of the pack.’ He was that rowdy fisherman-turned-fisher-of-men who was always the one to answer first when Jesus asked a question. He didn’t mind the attention … on the introvert – extrovert scale, he scored way high as an extrovert.

And yet it was this man who said, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.” He knew from personal experience that pride could get in the way big time and he was trying to save God’s people the grief and pain he had gone through.

I love that Peter acknowledged that humility doesn’t come easy but it does come with rewards. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time, he may exalt you.

Peter had fallen hard. He had denied Jesus … the Man of whom he had earlier proclaimed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” When the going got tough, Peter got going far away … and he suffered emotionally for it.

But Jesus didn’t leave Peter in that state. After His resurrection, Jesus sought Peter out on the beach and offered him an opportunity for restoration. Peter humbled Himself and received Jesus’ words: “Now feed my sheep.” Jesus commissioned this once arrogant man to be not just His follower but a leader in His church.

Being humble does not mean you can’t be the extrovert God created you to be. It does mean, however, that we need to let God blow our horns and set us up for future He has in store for us!

Let’s tell our God stories … that’ll put the credit where the credit’s due!

What's your mentality: victim or student?

As we leave behind the season of remembering Jesus’ trial, crucifixion, and resurrection, it might be easy to take for granted the immense sacrifice the Son of God made on our behalf. I mean, we’ve got the Bible. We know how the story ends … God wins!

But there were many Jesus followers walking through the Passion Week who did not have the same panoramic view of the Gospel story. Instead, they experienced the very unexpected turn of events and perhaps found themselves on the brink of despair.

Continuing our look at the ways we need to be living so that we are walking in the light of life (see archives for previous blogs), this week we’ll ponder the letter G for goodness (L = love; I = integrity) to see another ‘light of life’ filter to consider.

LIFE OF GOODNESS

To live in the light of life also means to live a life of goodness. Of course, one way to look at this is continue the challenge to be ‘good’ people, making good decision and living good lives. But I also want to challenge you to actively look for God’s goodness!

A number of years ago, I was struck by the words in Psalm 27:13 … I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Sometimes I am on the brink of such despair that the LAST thing I’m thinking about is looking for God’s goodness. Nope, I’ve already catapulted into the hysteria of ‘how can this be happening to me?’ ‘What have I done to deserve this?’ I basically take on a VICTIM mentality.

But this verse pulls me back from that brink of despair and reminds me that God’s goodness is alive and well, and I’d better start looking for it or else …

Or else, I will despair.

Or else, I will lose hope.

Or else, I might drag down some other folks with me.

When we take off the victim mentality and put on the ‘student’ mentality, we stop asking ‘Why me?’ and start asking ‘What do I need to learn from this situation? What do you want to show me about Yourself?’

As I walked through our personal losses after Hurricane Katrina, I would jokingly say that I’m trying to learn all of the lessons God wants to teach through this, so I don’t have to be tested on this material again.

Apparently I learned a bunch because a few years ago, I got upgraded to a different kind of storm when my son became addicted to drugs and our family was rocked upside down and every which way.

I wish I could say I went straight to the ‘student’ mentality and sought what God wanted to show me about Himself but I didn’t. I cried, screamed, whined, begged, and wallowed in a lot of self-pity over the situation … we hadn’t raised him to be a drug addict. How could God let this happen?

It took a while but God patiently waited for me to begin to see that He had not dumped this problem in our laps and said, ‘Good luck.’ No, He walked with us through each difficult step and taught us much about waiting on Him and trusting in Him and looking for His goodness in what seemed like a very bad situation.

He promises ‘goodness’ … but we do have to look for it to be able to see it. Perhaps waking up each morning singing “Open the eyes of my heart ….” would be a good way to start each day.

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of my heart,

I want to see You, I want to see you.

Who you are when no one's looking

We’re moving ahead in our series on what it means to live in the light of life. We’ve considered a little of the context of Jesus’ words in John 8:12 and what it might look like to live a life of love. But what about the I word: integrity?

LIFE OF INTEGRITY

Simply put, integrity is where your beliefs meet your behaviors. Basically, the values you possess are expressed by consistent actions … you practice what you preach … you walk the talk. All of this is easier said than done but, oh, so important to our own sanity as well as the well-being of those around us.

It’s one thing to FEEL like an imposter because God has called you to do something that you never imagined doing or is way outside your comfort zone. The stress you feel related to this is more about the challenge than about deceiving people.

It’s a whole ‘nother thing to BE an imposter … not living a life consistent with what you say you believe. The stress that builds up here is about constantly having to cover up the truth about your real life with the lies you have created about your pretend life. Deception is exhausting.

Integrity is essentially about living in the LIGHT! It is being above reproach or judgment. It doesn’t mean that people won’t criticize or accuse you about stuff; it just means there won’t be any lasting basis for their distrust or dissatisfaction.

Earlier this semester, I referred to the story of two brothers who were convicted of stealing sheep and were branded with on the forehead with the letters “ST,” meaning sheep thief. One of the brothers was unable to bear the stigma and tried to hide himself in a foreign land. He kept on wandering restlessly; at length, full of bitterness, he died and was buried far from home.

The other brother said to himself, “I can’t run away from the fact that I stole sheep. I will stay here and win back the respect of my neighbors and myself.” As the years passed, he developed a reputation for integrity. One day a stranger saw the old man with the letters on his forehead. He asked a neighbor what they signified. “Oh,” the neighbor said. “It happened a great while ago. I have forgotten the particulars, but I think the letters are an abbreviation for saint.”

Oh, that our lives would be so full of integrity that if anyone recounted the foolishness of our past years, current acquaintances would find it very hard to believe!

I ain't got time to be nothing

Recently, I introduced a series of blog posts built around Jesus’ profession in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (If you missed the first blog in this series, check it out in the archives.)

Our goal for these next few weeks is to consider how we should be living so that we may walk in the light of life. Using an acrostic for the word LIGHT as a memory prompter, we look at the how we need to live (spoiler alert: all five are here!) …

·         A life of LOVE

·         A life of INTEGRITY

·         A life of GOODNESS

·         A life of HUMILTY

·         A life of TRUTH

Let’s start with life of LOVE.

In 1 Corinthians 13, we can pick up a lot of direction on how to live a life of love. Many people think this chapter is just for newlyweds because it’s read at so many weddings. Personally, I think it ought to be read at leadership meetings, family gatherings, and well, you get the idea … everywhere people get together and interact with each other.

For starters, we’re reminded that when we bust forward in life without love, we are clanging gongs and gonging clangs! We are a bunch of noise, hot air, and probably offending the very people we most intend to serve. In Paul’s words, without love, we are nothing!

I don’t know about you but I ain’t got time to be nothing! My prayer is that my life would point people to Jesus and, in some small way, make an impact for the Kingdom of God. And here Paul is saying that without love, that’s just not going to happen.

I challenge you to go back with me and read the words of 1 Corinthians 13 with this filter … that to live in the light of life, you need to live a life of love, not just with people you like, but with everyone. Paul uses words like patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, not keeping a record of wrongs … always protecting, always trusting, always hoping, always persevering.

Wow! That’s a challenge all in itself but we’ve got four more letters to go! See you soon for the ‘I’ word: integrity.