Humility Is More Than a Word

Humility Is More Than a Word

It occurred to me today just how often we, as adults, consider ourselves to be experts in many areas of our own lives.  By doing this we leave little, if any, room for someone else to be just as right or correct as we are.  This dawned on me today as I was doing my weekly coaching drills during soccer practice today.  I coach my son’s soccer team, a group of 10-year-old boys who play for a recreational league.  As I give the kids drills I hear a lot of “I knows” or “yeah, I get it” when, they rarely do fully understand that in which I am trying to teach them.  It becomes abundantly clear when it comes game time, all those “I knows” and “yeah I got it’s” quickly become blank stares, and standing around.   

This made me stop and ponder in my own life, as a father.  Am I sending this very message to my son?  Am I more focused on being right myself and less, wanting to be humble?  There are many areas of my life that I, as an adult, feel I have come to a certain point in which guidance isn’t as necessary as it was, say, a few years ago.  However, it appears that my son has been mirroring my actions and has arrived to a point in his young life, where he isn’t focused on humility, rather, he is focused on not wanting to be humble.  This has startled me in a great way!  How about you, what areas of your life are you not interested in learning humility?  Are you thinking that you have it all put together, and that your life is in no need of routine maintenance?  For me this has caused me to take a personal inventory to see where I am lacking in humility and thinking that I do not need any advice or growth.  Its moments like this in which the Holy Spirit

puts up a giant yellow caution sign for us to not necessarily stop (but perhaps for some it is a stop sign) rather slow down and take a personal assessment.  If we let ourselves, we can veer off of God’s desired plan for our lives and begin to make some terrible choices.  If we go down this road our children, our marriages, our relationships will begin to lose value and many will distance themselves from us.  As we move into taking a personal inventory of our lives this week, I want you to consider what the prophet Micah speaks to us in Chapter 6 verse 8: “And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”.

If we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, not just here and there, rather fully guide us, then when we come to these personal inventories.  This mean, it is just like scheduling a routine tune up on your car.  After all, even Jesus taught the twelve that it was better to serve rather than be served.                (Matt 20:28) This is just one of many teaching that Christ gave to us in order that we could know how to live humbly.  We have a model, we have many writings on it, we also have the Holy Spirit to guide us.  With all this, I hope that you will be challenged this week to cloth yourself with humility.  I know that it is not easy, it will be tough, but someone in your life right NOW needs to see Jesus, and you may be the very thing they need in order for them to see it.   And by doing so it will cause you to be closer to God than you have been in a while.

My prayer for you this week is that as you seek to become humbler in your life, God will open an opportunity for you to see what areas need it the most.  Perhaps your marriage, your parenting, your work/boss, your relationships, whatever it may be, may  the God of all creation guide you and create in you a change that will bring you closer to Him.  AMEN