I Wonder What I Meant By That?

 Sometimes I create drafts with a title and one line.  The idea is that I'm going to come back to it and write it later.  I have three posts in draft mode right now.  One is called "Oh So That's Humility?" and another "The Way that Heals You" and the third "Missing God."  

All three, great, undeveloped ideas that will probably remain in my draft folder for quite some time; maybe forever.

Or maybe not.

Maybe I'll just take a shot at one of them here.  Why not?

Oh So That's Humility?

I won't lie, humility is right up there with "atonement theory" in the category of things that mystify and fascinate me.  I'm amazed by people who are naturally humble.  And they don't even think of it as being humble (because I guess if you tell yourself, "Wow I'm so humble," that wouldn't be humble).  

Joel Goldsmith explained humility this way: "Humility in the sense of realizing that whatever it is we are, it is because of the Master flowing out through us."  If all that I am is the reality of the Master flowing out through me, that takes some of the pressure off, doesn't it?  Why do I need to prove anything?  Why do I need to insist on my way?  Why do I need to point out, "Yeah, well, you know that was my idea, right?" if everything that I am is the reality of the Master flowing through me? Why indeed other than fear or maybe anxiety that "I" am not enough, as if I can separate "me" from the Master flowing through me.  I suppose I can stop the flow, or at least try to (I think God is more powerful than me after all).  Or I can ignore it.  Or dodge it.  Or not "lead" from it.  And maybe the farther away we drift from our identity in God, in Christ, in the Holy Spirit (pick your favorite member of the Holy Trinity), the more we see ourselves as separate from God.  And that can't be good!

Yes, the misconception of somehow being separate from God is an odd one that lives in the "extremes." On one extreme, it's the ego.  On the other, it's suffering self esteem.  But right smack dab in the middle is where I need to be. That's is where me/God converges, because, as Goldsmith claimed, whatever it is that we are, it is because of the Master flowing out through us.

And then he wrote these words: "We are never the Master; we are always the servant."  I love that!  It aligns with the daily struggle to not be in charge of our "destinies."  You know, "Thy will, not mine, be done in my life today."  And yet it goes beyond that, because it attaches our very identity and meaning to the Master. Not just perfect obedience, more like perfect unity.

And there's another mystery -- union with Christ.  I know Jesus was perfectly one with God.  Some of it has to do with his dual nature -- fully divine and fully human.  But also it was his deepest desire, his natural inclination that he nurtured and practiced.  

There's a passage in Acts when Paul is speaking to the people of Athens that points to this kind of perfect unity and taking every ounce of our identity from God.  Ironically, Paul seems to be quoting a verse of poetry or philosophy that must have been familiar to the Athenians.  He says, "From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him -- though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said." (Acts 17:28)

The prayer that Jesus prays in John 17 conveys a similar truth where our union with God is concerned.  Jesus prays, "I ask not only on behalf of these (the disciples), but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word (us), that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:20).

Maybe humility is living from that prayer of Jesus, planting our flag there and asking the Spirit to teach and lead and mold us into a person who desires unity with God and unity with others.  And desiring it from an understanding that our truest identity flows from there.

So what?  Lol.  (That's the question most preaching professors in seminary will scribble on the manuscripts of your sermons if you don't make it obvious why people should give two figs about what you are claiming.)  Only this -- humility is not something to be grasped at (isn't that a funny visual?).  It's not something to strive for (because again, then I take the credit and instantly lose the ground I'm trying to gain).  

Humility is the words of Peter on the beach with Jesus -- "You know everything Lord. You know that I love you."  

It's a gentle reminder to surrender; to change my mind (another understanding of the word "repent"); to exercise loving trust in the One in whom we live and move and have our being.