"But I don't have to be at the top," you say, "as long as I'm not at the bottom."
Doesn't that count as humility?
Surely that must mean I'm not proud.
Jesus told this story to some who trusted in their own goodness and looked down on others who weren't as good as them.
There were two men who went to the Temple to pray, one was a pharisee (the audience cheers), and the other was a dishonest tax collector (boo).
The pharisee stood and prayed to himself.
'O God, thank you that I am not like other people, especially like that tax collector I saw come in with me! I could never be like him, cause I never cheat, or sleep around, I fast twice a week, and I am faithful to give you the exact amount of money you ask for.'
But the tax collector stood off to the side and wouldn't even lift his head towards heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying 'O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.'
When Jesus was finished with the story he asked, "whose prayer did God hear, which man walked away justified?"
It wasn't the Pharisee!
By the way, did you notice to whom he was praying?
So Jesus concludes with this point, "For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted." luke18:14
The proud man thinks himself in right standing with man and before God, he sees himself higher than some and scorns those who are lower.
The humble man sees himself a sinner, unworthy of standing before God. He bows low to the ground, where he cannot appreciate whether his position is elevated or how it relates to others. His humble state comes from his mind, not from his status among men.
Humility is not displayed by an attitude of self-degradation.
Simply saying, "I'm just not good enough for that place of honor" doesn't imply that the flesh agrees. The one who speaks this way may, in fact, lament his own inadequacies only because it has been thrust upon him by others. Inwardly, he really believes himself to be capable of much more and longs for others to see that as well. Or he believes that appearing humble will elevate him in the eyes of others.
This need to boost ourselves is an auto-pilot reaction to the downward pull of humility.
When does humility get you down? Do you feel humiliated when you make mistakes, when you fail, when you're ashamed, rejected, overlooked, when you are wrong, when you lose, when someone else is better than you, when you get a low grade, when you say something wrong, when others criticize you, mock you, when you feel stupid?
Does humility pull you down when you are treated unfairly, misjudged, when someone yells at you, when you are not the best, the smartest, the prettiest, when you are passed over for a position, when you have to take the second best, when another person is praised, when you aren't the center of attention, when your kids misbehave, when you feel unwanted, excluded, aren't asked or needed, when your contribution goes unrecognized, when you aren't consulted, or chosen, when you feel useless, feel like a burden?
Are you familiar with these tugs of humility? How often do you feel the pull? Maybe your tugs look different from these. Whatever the case, humility gets you down. The problem is that what humbles us does not make us humble.
I am not content to stay down. I will squirm and whine, get angry, expend tons of effort to improve myself, make it every priority to get back up to where I perceive I once was or want to be in order to be okay with who I am. I will not rest until I am up there again. I will repeatedly frustrate myself with "why" questions, with why am I not the favorite, why was she chosen over me, what does she have that I don't? Why did they laugh at her story and not mine? Why did they take her suggestion and not mine?
Pride hates the things that humble us, hates the failures, the features, hates the things that hold us back from rising. Loathing what humbles you does not make you humble; it is a fleshly reaction to being humbled. Pride motivates you to hate yourself, and this will not produce humility of mind. Self-hate is just a twisted form of self-love.
Humility has the simplest of meanings, low, and haughty simply means high.
Low and high are not difficult concepts.
Think about those things that take you up, that elevate your status, that make you better, that keep you from being at the bottom, that thankfully keep you from being the worst. Things like being in a relationship, education, friends, ministries, salary, approval of those you admire, what others say about you, being admired, being liked, being perfect, being the leader, the confidant, the favorite, the wise one, the chosen, being talented, top of your class, spiritual gifts, appearance, your social network, # of retweets. Do any of these things pull you up when you've been knocked down? Does the lack of any of these test your humility?
What traits elevate a people in your eyes, cause you to want to be like them? Are they creative, funny, cool, witty, are they confident, logical, smart, do they hold a position like president, doctor, executive, manager, department head, are they opinionated, cutting edge, trendsetter, outspoken, powerful?
Do you perceive some people as better than others? Do you look up to famous singers, conference speakers, preachers, authors? Do riches, possessions, name brand clothes, accessories, car or house make a person seem more worthy of your attention? Does popularity, friends, rugged good looks, beauty, appearance increase one's value? Does the person in a relationship receive more honor than one who is not?
Take a close look at those things that elevate others, because those are the things you value, the things that you desire in order to feel better about yourself. Some of these people will elevate you just by being in their presence, being accepted by them, being included in their inner circle. Others will have the opposite effect, eroding your sense of worth and value. You will find yourself hating on them, wanting to bring them down a few notches.
Who assigns value to people or things? Value is determined by what someone is willing to pay for an item; the amount spent sets the worth of the thing that is bought. How much are you worth? The cost of redemption, the cost of buying you back, was determined by your Creator. Imagine the value set by the price that Christ paid for you and me. On second thought, don't even bother, because you can't dream up a worth that comes within light years distance of reaching the edge of the immense value that Christ paid for you.
And yet, we practice the folly of elevating!
When we exalt one over another, we are exchanging God's determined value with one of our own. I want you to let that sink in for a moment, because, this is so second nature to us, we play this ludicrous game in our sleep.
I'm shocked at myself that I even consider this!
Any value I can assign is so obscenely inferior to God's, that to deposit a penny of His worth in the bank would make us millionaires by comparison, and even then, a penny fails in this analogy to demonstrate the true dimensions of disproportion between the value I have in Christ and the value I gain by those things I perceive that make me better.
"Do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, 'you sit here in a good place', and you say to the poor man, 'you stand over there, or sit down by my footstool', have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?" james2:1-4
If you find yourself looking down on anyone, you have succeeded in putting yourself higher than the Lord would have you to be. The Lord says if you want to be great you have to lower yourself to serve, if you want to be exalted, go low to the lowest.
Low is the new high.
How do you like the view?
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