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May 3 - May 4, 2021
“Learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart … ” “Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus …” “Being found in human form, he humbled himself …”
Yes, there is something here. Something rich and restful. Something true and beautiful. Something that will lead us to flourishing and peace.
They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. –MICAH 4:4
Failure at small things reminds us of how helpless we are in this great, wide world. When little things spiral out of control, they remind us that even they were never within our control in the first place.
When we believe that we are responsible for our own existence, when we trust our ability to care for ourselves, we will have nothing but stress because we are unequal to the task.
Your heavenly Father knows what you need. He knows your heart is troubled. He also knows, better than you do, that all these things are beyond you. And so, this is what you must do, all that you must do: You must seek Him. And let Him take care of the rest.
He frees us from our burdens in the most unexpected way: He frees us by calling us to rely less on ourselves and more on Him. He frees us by calling us to humility.
“What does the LORD require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” —Micah 6:8
The rest that Jesus offers only comes when we humble ourselves and submit to Him.
Well said.
“Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD.… It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” —Proverbs 3:7–8
Pride convinces us that we are stronger and more capable than we actually are. Pride convinces us that we must do and be more than we are able.
When Jesus calls us to take His yoke, when He invites us to find rest through submission, He is not satisfying some warped need for power or His own sense of pride. He is calling us to safety. The safety that comes from belonging to Him. The safety that comes from being tamed.
It is understandable that we fear the yoke. We fear the loss of control. We fear surrender. But we must also understand that without the protection of a good master, we are not safe. From the manipulation of other masters. From the expectations of society. From ourselves.
As long as we refuse to accept that our pride is the source of our unrest, we will continue to wither on the vine.
“Humility, that low, sweet root / From which all heavenly virtues shoot.” —Thomas Moore
Humility, then, is not simply a disposition or set of phrases. Humility is accurately understanding ourselves and our place in the world. Humility is knowing where we came from and who our people are. Humility is understanding that without God we are nothing.
Andrew Murray writes in his classic book Humility, “Humility is simply acknowledging the truth of [our] position as creature and yielding to God His place.”
Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus shows us our true identity as people dependent on God for life. And through His life, death, and resurrection, He imparts this humble life to us once again.
“The life of God is the root in which we are to stand and grow.” —Andrew Murray
We can no longer simply be content to attempt to imitate Him; we must become part of Him in order to reflect Him.
Even more interestingly, the English words “human” and “humility” share a common Latin root: humus, which means dirt, earth, or ground.
In the Genesis narrative, the word adam is a collective noun meaning “humankind” and comes from the Hebrew word adamah which means “ground.” Linguistically, at least, there is an intrinsic connection between the ground, our humanity, and humility.
In other words, humility begins by remembering where we come from. Humility begins by remembering that to be human is to be dirt. Humility begins by remembering that we are “dust and to dust [we] shall return.”
C. S. Lewis writes, “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.… It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.”17
Jesus Christ is the one who restores both our humility and our humanity. And in His glorious resting place—under the shade of His branches—we find rest.
“He became what we are so that he might make us what he is.” —Athanasius of Alexandria
Patrick Henry Reardon writes, The doctrine of the Incarnation affirms that we were redeemed through the personal experiences of God’s Son in human history—the very things that the Word underwent.… Human redemption ‘happened’ in the humanity of the eternal Word as he passed through, transformed, and deified our existence.25
When we are consumed with God’s glory, we forget to worry about our own. When our eyes are fixed on Him as the source of all goodness and truth and beauty, we accept that we are not. When we are enamored by His worth and majesty, we can stop being so enamored with ourselves. And fascinatingly, when we seek God’s glory, we’ll be able to appreciate it in the people around us. Instead of seeing them as threats to our own glory, we will see them as beautiful reflections of His.
“No tree can grow except on the root from which it sprang … If humility is the root of the tree, its nature must be seen in every branch, leaf, and fruit.” —Andrew Murray
Jen Wilkin writes that we must recover the truth that was obscured by the serpent: rather than being like God in His unlimited Divinity, we are to be like God in our limited humanity.… We are limited by design, in order that our limits might point us to worship our limitless God.… When I reach the limit of my strength, I worship the One whose strength never flags. When I reach the limit of my reason, I worship the One whose reason is beyond searching out.29
For thus says the LORD, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream.… You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass.” —ISAIAH 66:12, 14
The first thing humility teaches you is to honor the physicality of your body.
To reclaim humility, Jesus embraced human limits as good. To restore our humanity, Jesus revealed the goodness of being bound in space and time. To free us from shame, Jesus proved that being human is nothing to be ashamed of.
“It is not the soul … that will rise but the body, glorified.” —Flannery O’Connor
Humility teaches us that “God is greater than our heart.”8 Humility teaches us that we don’t have to obey our emotions because the only version of reality that matters is God’s.
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” —Zechariah 4:6
“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” —Miles Kington
Humility, on the other hand, predisposes us to believe that we always have something to learn.
Proverbs 18:15 says, “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.”
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” —Romans 11:33 (KJV)
Not only does humility teach us that knowledge comes from outside us, it also reminds us that we cannot perfectly categorize and process the knowledge that we do have. Humility teaches us the limits of human reason.
epistemological humility leaves room for grace.
Humility teaches us to wait for God for answers. Humility teaches us to let knowledge ripen on the vine.
pride convinces us that we are more significant than we really are, it also convinces us that we deserve a certain experience of the world; and when something disrupts that, our pride reveals itself by complaining.
1 Corinthians 4:7: For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
Humility teaches us that all is gift.
Humility teaches us tha...
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If we take a great deal of satisfaction in how little we need, in how much we reject abundance, simplicity becomes nothing more than an asceticism that, as theologian J. I. Packer puts it, is “too proud to enjoy the enjoyable.”8
When we consider our resources, it is not enough to simply count our one thousand gifts. Our one thousand gifts are actually one thousand opportunities: the very means by which God intends to seed His world.
humility teaches us to ask, “What has God given and what responsibility do I have because of it?” And by doing so, humility changes the frame of reference entirely. Suddenly we are no longer at the center; God is. Suddenly our sense of entitlement or guilt no longer drives our choices. Suddenly everything is a gift and everything has purpose.
