Humility is a strong word. We are called to be humble by God. Humility is choosing love over power. It's thinking of oneself less and others needs more. The opposite of humility is pride. We have to be careful not to cross over into pride.....ever. Humility is lovely......pride is not.
The other day I was talking with a couple. They recently became homeless and just wanted something to eat. This was not easy for them to talk of their situation as I could tell it was hard for them. They had to be humble and ask for help. The girl was pregnant and their situation broke my heart. I know there are people out there who take advantage......and I know people who would say these two were doing that to me. This may be the case, but it's not for me to figure out or try to fix for them. I know God put them in my path that day to humble me. To show me my priorities get mixed up sometimes.....that people need others to help them, same as we all need God to help us.
We can also be humble in our learning. God places people in our life to teach us. I am fortunate to work with some very educated people. If I want to learn a procedure or how certain medicines affect the body, I can ask anyone and they will help me understand. I ask because I don't know and they do. There are always people in our life who know more than we do. When we realize we don't know everything and can ask others that know much more than us, that is being humble.
Now....if I go to one of my coworkers and tell them they are wrong about how they are doing a procedure just because I read an article on it and it's different than they are doing it......that makes me prideful. That makes me think I know more than they do.....and they been doing it for years and have a degree.....and I don't know what I'm talking about, yet I think I do. I am not only not being humble, I'm being arrogant to them. I try to look at my teachers and respect what they have to teach me....even if I don't understand right away. I listen and if I need to look up or research further what they tell me, then so be it, but trying to be "all that" is wrong. There is no room for arrogance in healthcare because someone's life is usually on the line. That has to be priority.
What about being humble before God? This is the most important. God does not tolerate pride or arrogance. Jesus was never proud. He despised the pride of the Pharisees. We can't let Jesus light shine if we aren't humble. When we are humble to God we recognize we are wrong and have sinned against Him. We need to confess and repent so our fellowship can be restored with Him. If we let our sin consume us, our communications with our God is stifled. He hears our prayers but can't act on them because our sin is in the way. We have to acknowledge we hurt him and repent so we can restore the relationship. This is humility. We realize we have offended a holy God and take action because the fellowship with Him is the most important thing in our life. We humbly come before that cross and let our God know we messed up. He will forgive us....according to 1 john 1:9.....he forgives us every time we confess. Prideful people don't think they need to confess anything. Humble people know they need to confess and know God is the ultimate authority in their life. Pleasing him is above all else in this life is how they live.
So....we need to be humble, teachable, and help others along the way to see these traits are important.
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