The Treasure of Humility
“O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!” Psalm 95:6
Tuesday of Holy Week ~ 4/4/2023
“The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Mathew 23: 11-12)
Anytime I hear this passage, I think of my older brother, Mike, and of course, Jesus as He washed the feet of His Apostles at the Last Supper before He was crucified.
It seems that as the only girl among four brothers, I was always wrestling for some sort of attention or recognition and learned to be very competitive. I suspect there were many prideful moments when I was not the least bit humble. At which point, Mike would utter this scripture to me . . . usually condensing it to: “. . . the exalted will be humbled, Nickie!” I suppose that had I been a debater, I would have shot back with, “ . . . well, you don’t sound very humble, either!” but, alas, I was saved from a neener-neener-neener moment which would have likely escalated things to infinity and beyond. Ah, the fall of the prideful, though.
To this very day, he has such a servant heart! And, of course, he would never think of himself as humble, but yet, always striving for that humility around others. He would never take the bigger/biggest portion, or the first. He would never take a seat unless everyone one else was seated, and would hesitate even then, in case someone came in late. And, if they did, he would be the first one to offer his seat, if there were no more. It can actually be irritating at times, but then his wife reminds me, “Sometimes, it’s like it might have been, being married to Jesus.”
Even if I made him a special chocolate chip cookie filled with extra chocolate chips, he would offer it to someone else, first. He is noted among all his family and friends as the “Good Samaritan”: if there was someone in need, he would give them whatever they needed, even if he had to go without. There were many times I felt like he might have been neglecting his own needs at times, and even doing things that were possibly detrimental to his health. But he felt he had the means to correct things for both the other person and himself. So, he did. He lives these two scriptures out daily:
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:1-4)
“. . . And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:5-7)
It can definitely be a tightrope balancing act to both care for another’s needs, especially a stranger’s, as well as your own, but it is what we are called to do. This seems to run contrary to the self-centeredness of today’s culture, but we must try to change that. As a Youth Minister, it was often 15 and 16 year-olds I would take to do mission work, or some sort of new ministry. They ached to do something that made them feel like their life was important to someone else. When they fed and visited the homeless, they cried. They wanted to do more. When they helped out a neighbor who could not manage yard or house work, they kept coming back to voluntarily help. They looked forward to a variety of service projects to fill the void that selfishness often created.
Their typical weekend activities that they had put so much effort and importance into, were put on the back burner, once they learned what it meant to have a servant heart. Yes, they might have started doing it as a “box to check for program requirements”, but requested to continue serving! So, I know it is possible to turn selfish hearts around (metanoia) to servant hearts; exalted attitudes to humility, and distancing from the impoverished to compassionate and caring souls, ready to serve their neighbor. If only this happened more often.
It is not very difficult to make the transition – once you experience the treasure that a humble heart feels . . . it is joy. May we do more and share more and make this a much more joy-filled world.
If there is someone in your life with whom you feel superior, try to find one thing that you can compliment them on, to lift them up. You might be surprised at how they react, if this has been an ongoing attitude from you . . . and quite possibly you might not even be aware of this.
Pray for humility – to have a more servant heart than one of arrogance or self-importance.
See if an instance arises where you can step back and witness a situation as to how a servant would act, rather than a prideful person might act.
May you find treasures of humility as you journey these last few days before the final days of remembrance of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection later this week.