The Bible calls us to be Holy like He is Holy. A worthy goal to be sure, but sadly this endeavor often gets confused with ritual and law and we end up taking pride in our moral cardiovascular fitness rather than humbly offering a broken and contrite heart.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)

We boast about how tough our heart of stone is and forget that God wants a vulnerable heart of flesh.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)

We fill our ego with legalistic hot air and confuse our weightlessness with being one step closer to heaven when in reality we are grounded until our sails are filled with the Holy Spirit. We are God-breathed and not man-burped.

It’s interesting that we don’t laud the sins of the flesh yet we seem to think that pride is a good thing. C.S Lewis, however, felt that pride was the ultimate source of all our problems:

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility…According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea bites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind. (C.S. Lewis)

We need to remember that Holiness is not just exaltation to the right hand of God but also includes incarnation as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.  Holiness shouldn’t make us feel full of our “divine” selves but rather should evoke a sense of emptiness when we realize we can’t do it alone.

Humility is an interesting thing. Our culture considers it the enemy and makes every effort to make us feel proud. It hands out participation trophies and offers pulpits for those with fragile worldviews. It divinizes our choices even when those choices are ultimately destructive. The problem with this kind of self-esteem is that it is built on nothing. If you desire infinite value then you cannot rely on finite investments. If your human portfolio is measured by the amount of earthly treasure then you will find yourself destitute when your life market crashes. However, if you sell your earthly possessions and serve those less fortunate than yourself then you will be making an investment in a heavenly treasure that will keep you secure well into your resurrection years.

Sadly, we live our lives like Egyptian Pharaoh’s who prepare their tombs for a heavenly journey by filling them with money, boats, and food. The problem with this afterlife strategy is that you can’t bribe St. Peter, your boat won’t fit through the narrow salvation lock system, and strict agricultural restrictions ban the transport of forbidden fruit into the next life. However, if we invest in the Kingdom we find that our credit is always good because it is backed up by heavenly treasure, we easily fit through the narrow gate because we have stripped ourselves of our earthly possessions, and we have plenty to eat because the Tree of Life always bears fruit. It appears that he who dies with the most toys doesn’t win after all.

Humility appears to have value for the afterlife but what about for our present life? Why is bending a knee a more noble posture than sitting on a throne? I would argue that if your worth is built on anything but God then humbling yourself just chips away at the fragile facade of self-esteem that the culture has built for you. Sadly, once your life story comes to an end, the Hollywood set upon which you performed will be broken down only to reveal an empty lot. If, however, your worth is based on God then every time you humble yourself you reveal the One who has your back.

“How much larger would your life be if your self could become smaller in it. ” (G.K.Chesterton)

I find it interesting that those who get angry when their views are criticized are the ones that have nothing in reserve. Their identity is so attached to their viewpoint that giving in on any point leaves them less than whole. Christians, on the other hand, find that when they are cut down to size they actually stand taller. Their perceived weakness turns out to be the power of God.

If you are a Christian then every act of humbling reveals more of the savior. Gods power is found in weakness because it diminishes us and makes God more visible. Humility is all about decreasing while He increases. We are like curtains at a theater that must part into the wings in order to reveal the greatest story ever told. We don’t humble ourselves out of slavish subservience to a demanding deity but because we worship a God who came to serve and not be served. When we act sheepish we end up revealing the Shepherd.

If, as Paul said, our bodies are temples where the Holy Spirit dwells then every act of humility opens our sanctuary doors and allows the Spirit to flood the place and fill the atmosphere. Humility was also a thorny issue for Paul but God made it clear that his scrapes and cuts would reveal His power.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Jesus emptied Himself and revealed the Father. Adam and Eve filled themselves and revealed the serpent. It is only when we make ourselves smaller that God becomes larger. A prideful witness is a poor argument for a suffering servant. Our culture would have you believe that humility knocks the wind out of your self-esteem but God declares that humility is actually the breath that gives  you worth. If you believe that you are just an evolved animal then humility weakens the line of defense in your battle to survive, but if you believe you are an image-bearer then your survival is eternally assured.

Sadly, the original sin of pride has become a cultural virtue. Maybe the world would be a better place if we had humility parades instead of pride parades. Maybe the world would be a better place if we truly believed that our weakness made us a Gospel welcome mat and not a cultural door mat.

Photo by Grant Durr on Unsplash