Don’t Let Anyone Talk You out of Your Humility
He turned in his test and about five seconds later approached me, to ask if he could change an answer he thought was wrong.
I said, Sure.
So he pulled out his pencil, leaned over his test that was on my desk, and I watched as he erased the correct answer and wrote in the wrong answer.
He said, There!
I gave him a smile outwardly but groaned inwardly.
He should have gone with his gut.
My gut tells me I am a feeble and lacking in most every way.
But let me tell you about this big pink eraser our culture carries in its hand. Try saying you have failed, or you feel weak and powerless, or you’ve messed up, and out comes the pink.
No,no,no, no, no, no, no, they rub. Then they sweep their hand across the page of your life to swipe away all the pink debris.
You’re good, they say.
You’re awesome in all these ways, and they list them.
But there they’ve gone and erased the truth, to write in the wrong answer.
Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3 NIV)
It’s fill in the blank: Poverty.
Knowing every minute of every day, deep in our spirits, that we’re nothing without Jesus –that constant awareness is what lands us happiness and entrance to the kingdom of God.
We sing these words in church.
Why can’t we say them out loud, on a Tuesday, to a friend or a husband or a fellow Christian? Our guts tell us we fall short, and our guts are right.
Of course, Jesus goes long and makes up for our lacking.
The truth doesn’t look pretty on paper, but it’s that uncomfortable inadequacy that causes us to call out for help and then to experience Jesus’ power building up pressure within us and overflowing out of every broken crevice of our lives.
Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission that brought over 800 missionaries to the heart of China, said:
“God does not do his great works by large communites. He trains somebody to be quiet enough, and little enough and then he uses him.”
Humility? Admitting we are little?
Correct.
What a great reminder! It’s so easy to be talked out of that place where you NEED Christ and into a place of can-do and self-confidence.
Beautiful words you’ve written here. I never want to be in a place where I don’t desperately need Christ to help me.