Another inspirational thought I had this Sunday from church (I’m trying to get it all down so that I will remember this later) is one about humility.  We all know what humility is.  We talk about the importance of being humble in our daily lives, not to boast about anything but Christ, but I had another thought.  What if our motivation for why we are humble is wrong?

I tend to justify God’s commandments using logic.  I mean, it’s good to love your neighbor, treat other people as you would yourself, and feed the orphans and widows.  Those behaviors are commended as unselfish sacrifices. Even the world recognizes and commends those behaviors as unselfish, good things.  It might set us apart, but do they set us apart as the children of God?

In the example of humility, I justify being humble because I think of myself as flawed, which is flawed in itself.  Follow me on this one.  Yes, I know that one of the easiest ways to get humble is to remember our own mistakes and shortcomings.  But I can’t rely on that.  I have too much pride.  It’s too easy for me to lose that perspective by looking at someone “not as bad as I am” which is a flawed statement in itself, I know.  But I’m looking at myself in real light now.  I am a prideful, selfish person, so knowing my flaws is not enough to keep me humble.

Also, I can’t be humble because I think the other person deserves my humility.  I can be humble to authority.  I can be humble when the person who is talking to me is showering me with compliments.  But humble when I’m right?  Humble when I think (or know) that they are lying to me or slighting me?  Humble when they have hurt me, and I struggle with letting that hurt go?  This attempt at humility has flaws as well.

So what is left?  Of course, it’s the answer I don’t like very well.  Be humble because God calls me to be humble.  No, this isn’t some blindly follow without question thing.  The boiled down truth is that God created me and everything around me.  He wants the best for me, but more importantly, he wants a healthy relationship with me.  I’ve already messed that up, and yet he still sacrificed his son to give me yet another undeserved chance.  If God wanted me to do the chicken dance every morning in the middle of Times Square, then you better believe I would be on a plane to New York City tonight.  But he doesn’t ask that of me, because there’s a more dire situation going on here.

I need to be humble not for my own social, spiritual, and emotional health, but because my only purpose on this earth is to point the lost to Him.  And God is the only one that knows how all that works.  I need to do what he asks.  Period.

Once I figured that out, my mind blew.  What other things have I justified so that I could keep doing them by my rules instead of his.  Humility can’t be the only one….