Monday, April 28, 2014

The seats in the upper rooms Luke 14

They look so comfortable.  And they provide the best view. And the most admired company.

No wonder we are drawn to them.

So I've been thinking about humility, trying to figure out the process of becoming humble and staying humble

William Barclay suggests simply remembering how unimportant you are to the whole picture:  how life and good work will go on when you are gone, how little you know compared to all knowledge, how little we have achieved compared to all that has or will or should be accomplished in the world.   Maintaining humility by keeping yourself in perspective, you might say.

But this struck me from a talk on humility given by Howard Hunter in 1984:  

"Our genuine concern should be for the success of others." 

In other words, we are more likely to maintain humility when we unselfishly seek the good of others and, when that good conflicts with our own desires, we work for that good rather than seeking first the goal of procuring good for ourselves.

So, rather than getting there early to get a good comfortable seat with the best view and near the people we think are cool and interesting, simply getting there, and being happy for the people who have good seats.


I like that.  True humility isn't so much focusing on how unimportant or imperfect you are. If it were, then Jesus would never be able to be humble.  It's focusing on how important to you the value and welfare of others is and your appreciation of them as individuals.  It's believing their good needs and desires to be as important as yours, valuing and appreciating them, being willing to put their needs and desires ahead of your own and being happy for them when their good needs and desires are met.





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