Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself…Philippians 2:5-7a
Dear Friends in Christ,
I was going to write about the virtue of Humility, but I’m just not good enough… Hmm, perhaps that’s false humility—and a lack of courage too (courage is the will to do what must be done, even in the face of fear). Humility is not cowardice, neither is humility humiliation or thinking of one’s self as less than one is. Humiliation may be a necessary step in purging pride from us, but it is not the objective of humility. Humility is about seeing ourselves as God sees us.
I’ve been writing recently about Stewardship, Chastity and Humility (entries you can find on this blog home page). Humility is last in this list, but this virtue has been called “the mother of all virtues.” With humility, we have the openness to see our own need for the other virtues, the willingness to acknowledge and address our weaknesses, and the readiness to form those virtues within us. Without humility, we remain blind to the blessings of God’s grace, and resistant to the path of growth with God.
Humility involves letting go of the instinct to preserve the self first. We see humility in Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and welcoming children. We see his humility in being willing to suffer and die for us, not because he was powerless, but because of how he chose to use his power in obedience to God and for our good. Humility recognizes others as valuable in God’s eyes and therefore valuable to us—regardless of their faults and brokenness. For so are we valuable in God’s eyes, despite our faults and brokenness.
Humility is not about being a doormat to other people or having a low opinion of one’s self. Rather, as C.S. Lewis put it, humility is self-forgetfulness. Lewis writes that humility is about being able to see ourselves and regard all that is good and bad in us without pride or loathing, able to take joy in ourselves with as much detachment as we would take joy in a sunrise or a waterfall, part of the expression of God’s beauty. Humility is actually not about us—humility is about God. We lose ourselves in God so that we might immerse ourselves in God. And in so doing, we become more of who God dreams we might be.
How do we cultivate humility? There are several ways. Monks make vows of Obedience; in their case, obedience to their superiors in the order. Our American culture is not used to relationships of obedience, yet we would be blessed by them. Children can be obedient to parents and teachers, and athletes to coaches, for instance, and even staff to their managers. Clergy in the Episcopal Church and other churches, make vows to be obedient to their bishop and others in authority over them. This does not mean tolerating abuse or misconduct, but it does mean openness to how we might learn and grow and cultivate a servant’s heart through obedience. As Paul would describe it, we live in mutual submission to each other in Christ. For in Christ, our mutual submission is not a path to oppression, but a path to our mutual thriving.
One important practical way to cultivate humility is through worship of God. In our culture, we sometimes regard religious devotion as an experience for which we shop. Worship is like a new pair of pants we will put on when fashionable. But Christian discipleship is about surrender to God—about allowing God to buy us. Rather than serving us, or entertaining us, or even feeding us, worship is for God, and about God, and toward God. Brandon once remarked to me “It is hard to be a disciple if you are acting like a customer.” Humility, at its root, is surrender to God, the best and fullest approach to being a disciple of Jesus.
And how wonderful that surrender is! How wonderful it is to be embraced by God’s goodness and grace! To allow—not just part of ourselves, but all of ourselves—to be renewed by God’s grace. When we open ourselves to learning humility through the work of the Holy Spirit in us, we celebrate more of the blessings of others, we learn and grow and glorify God more. We build relationships of trust and integrity, and we grow closer to God each day.
As we enter the season of Lent next week, I pray that you will grow in the virtues of Stewardship, Chastity and Humility, and find the richness of God’s grace in the process.
Yours in Christ,
-Tom
P.S. Join with our Bible Studies and Sunday School classes in Lent as we all read “The Liturgy of the Ordinary” by Tish Harrison Warren. Warren describes ways we find God in the daily rhythms of life, how they inform our worship on Sundays, and how our worship on Sundays inform our discovery of God in our daily lives.