hum·ble

[huhm-buhl]: adj- not proud or arrogant; modest; verb-to lower in condition, importance, or dignity

How difficult it is to talk about humility in a humble way...Camp season has kept me from my precious blog for a time, but fear not- I'm not all blogged out yet!

 Humility, I would argue, is the key virtue to most everything in Christianity. You have probably heard that the root of all sins, in one way or another, is pride. Lust, greed, gossip, cheating, and anger all have pride to thank for giving them life. You could say that sin is just pride wearing different costumes. Therefore, I think it is safe to say that humility is the root of, in one way or another, all sanctified sorts of behavior. I hope I can help to expose some pride in your life, as I have a long way still to go in my fight.

If I could be blunt for a moment (as if you have any say in the matter), arrogance is a major problem among my peer group. Arrogance is generally called "pride," but as I said above, pride wears many costumes. So for clarity's sake, I will call this particular costume "arrogance." If you would take a second to examine yourself, most of us wouldn't say we struggle with any "major sin." We aren't hooked on drugs, sleeping around, stealing cars, or anything like that. So we think of  ourselves as trying to just fix the obscurities, rather than patch major holes. When we think "I may actually have this whole 'don't sin' thing down," we are opening ourselves to something much deadlier. Like carbon monoxide, arrogance permeates all areas of our life, slowly making us rancid and not desirable for use. We need a detector to warn us when we are becoming toxic.

You've most likely heard the saying "humility isn't thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less." Our tendency is to hear an accolade and say something like "Aw shucks, I don't think I'm that great." The funny thing is that most of the time you don't really believe the words that you are saying. I know I normally think in my heart-of-hearts "yeah, I am pretty awesome sometimes!" Even if you really do believe that you aren't that great, it is still the wrong response to downplay your goodness. The right response is to "think of yourself less." The correct response is to defer glory to the one who is Glorious. Next time you have the opportunity, remember this: defer the glory, not deter. 

The root of the problem goes deeper than just our responses, though. Humility begins in remembering who you were, or as pro athletes delight in saying "just remember where I came from." That's really it. It is helpful for me to read Exodus and remember that it is my story too. I was nothing but a slave. Fast-forward to Romans where we are reminded that we were once slaves to sin. That is all I am. I deserve that slavery. 

I became a Christian 6 years ago, so I remember life before that. Remember, I have no horror stories, but I was just as dead in sin as any other person. I was an enemy of God. He chose to show me grace while I was still a sinner, and now I am blogging about that grace. I did nothing to earn that. What reason do I have to be proud? Without him I have nothing; I am not particularly athletic, handsome, brilliant, or amazing (that isn't false humility, promise!), but I am a co-heir with Christ! I have a beautiful wife, a future, and incredible joy, all because of Christ changing my direction. I have nothing but the cross to boast in.

I wouldn't quite call it a privilege, but I can say that I know the difference in my life from before I knew Christ. Life-long Christians, preachers kids, etc: take heart, because you are not at such a disadvantage. No matter what your story is, we have the ultimate example of humility. Regardless of how cliche it sounds, Christ on the cross is the only example of humility, service, and submission we will ever need. How scandalously humble, that God himself would suffer as an offering and take the immense, immeasurable, titanic wrath that we deserve? What an unjust ruling! Casey Anthony and O.J. Simpson are failing allegories to how unjust it was that Christ should suffer on my behalf. "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." Philippians 2:5-7

My simple conclusion is this: what do we have to boast about? Jesus Christ.
Remember this: "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 2 Corinthians 4:7