Humility

Maybe you’ve noticed that I have been thinking about attitude this week. What kind of attitude should we cultivate in order to be useful to God? Do we need to have determination? Do we need to demonstrate gratitude? Probably both, yes. I’ve been putting one off, but guess I have to write about it today – humility.

If I use that really handy feature in Word to discover synonyms of humility, I am shown the words modesty, unassuming nature, and meekness. Is this what we are called to be? Can you tell that much of my post today will be questions, and that I don’t seem to have many answers?

I found this essay on humility this morning. Mr. Brown, the author, would tell you that Microsoft is wrong, at least theologically. I have to say that I agree with some of what he is saying.

I am finished with Job – yes, moving on to Psalms and happy about it. I read these passages this morning:

Job 38:4-7:

Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone
- while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

And verse 12: "Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,"

These are just a taste of the latter part of Job. If you want to get a taste of humility, perhaps Job 38-41 is a good place to start.

Ken Brown suggests that Philippians 2:1-16 is a good example of Christ’s humility, and sites verse 8 as the heart of it all, “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

Perhaps then we should define humility as the realization that God is God, and we are not. Hopefully, biting at the heals of this statement is a willingness to be obedient to God.

If humility is the understanding that God is God, and the fruit of that is obedience, then how do we demonstrate humility? Is it by being meek and mild? Is it by having an unassuming nature? Probably not. Once again, as Scott so wisely would say, it all comes back to Matthew 22:37-39 – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul, and with all your mind…Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

Pair that with Paul’s famous definition of love (1 Corinithians 13:4-7; The Message):

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back, but keeps going to the end.

I don’t always want to do that, but humility – God is God and I am not – means that I’m supposed to do it anyway.

Jesus didn’t want to die on a cross, but he did it anyway.

The secular definition of humility connotes subservience to other people; the theological definition of humility means subservience to God. It may (and probably will) result in acting as a servant to others, but that is a result of obeying the will of God. Sometimes humility will mean standing against injustice – whether in a peaceful protest, on the playground or in the boardroom. Humility doesn’t always mean quiet and meek – sometimes it means loud and annoying – but I would guess that it always means obedience to God and often requires courage.