I spent the weeks between Lent and Easter deep in the Bible,
spending hours each day with Jesus, re-reading his last days, talking with him,
meditating on his Word. It was wonderful. I experienced the celebration of his
resurrection more deeply than ever before in my life.
And yet the day after Easter I spoke these words to my
husband, “Why aren’t we as Christians desperate
for humility? Why don’t we crave it? Why don’t we recognize how hopeless we are
to live – to truly live – what Jesus calls us to do if we do not ooze humility?
I believe that until humility lives deep
inside me, until humility drowns out my selfish desires, I cannot really know
Jesus. Because until humility reigns in me, I just keep getting in the way of
my savior.
This morning I read an article written by Timothy Keller
entitled, The Advent of Humility.
It’s a great article but also discouraging. Here are a few highlights:
“Once we become aware
of the poison of pride, we begin to notice it all around us.” This is where
I am today. After walking all these years with Jesus, I began to notice and
despair of the pride that has ruled me, that has been the source of so many of
the struggles I have faced down over the years. Today, my most frequent prayer is that
humility will live in me. That pride will be forced out. That I will die to my
own selfishness. But Keller says, “Humility
is so shy. If you begin talking about it, it leaves.” What I have to be proud
of I cannot imagine, because as Keller says, “Our sin was so great, nothing less than the death of Jesus could save
us.” This must drop me to my knees every time!
I used to believe that behaving made God love me more.
Keller describes it like this, “When
people living in the moral-performance narrative base their self-worth on being
hard working or theologically sound, then they must look down on those whom
they perceive to be lazy or theologically weak.”
Today, I am living into this new way of believing, “But those who understand the gospel cannot
possibly look down on anyone, since they were saved by sheer grace, not by
their perfect doctrine or strong moral character.”
“When the gospel is
deeply grasped, however, our need to win arguments is removed, and our language
becomes gracious. We don’t have to ridicule our opponents, but instead we can
engage them respectfully.” I desperately want this in me.
Keller goes on to say:
“In the chapter, ‘The
Great Sin’, in Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis writes, ‘Whenever we find that
our religious life is making us feel that we are good – above all, that we are
better than someone else – I think we may be sure that we are being acted on,
not by God, but by the devil.’”
“Humility is only
achieved as a byproduct of understanding, believing, and marveling in the gospel
of grace. . . . when we listen to the gospel preached or meditate on it in the
Scriptures, we are driving it so deeply into our hearts, imaginations, and
thinking that we begin to instinctively ‘live out’ the gospel.”
“So let us preach
grace till humility starts to grow in us.” Yes, please, Jesus! Make this so
in me!
