Elusive humility

Did you hear about the man who was awarded a nice pin for being the most humble person in his church? The next Sunday they took it away from him for one simple reason—- because he wore it! We don’t see many books on humility, because those who are qualified to write them don’t know that they are, and the rest—well, they aren’t qualified. Yet the Bible says that God resists the proud and arrogant, but gives His grace to the humble and broken. That being true, getting humility must be extremely important!

Some of the most profound truths cannot be easily broken down to a simple lecture or outline format. We are not given a list of rules teaching us how to develop a certain spiritual quality. Instead, we have been given examples and stories and experiences. God does not usually give us a list. He did give us one who told stories, one who himself lived the greatest story ever told, and a book which is also full of stories. He is giving each of us our own different story, based on our lives and our relationship with him.

On the subject of humility, I certainly can’t break it down into teaching points. I can’t teach about it at all without ruining it or losing it. I have almost nothing to say that will help. I can only tell stories. And, they can’t be stories of my own humility, supposing I had any. For if they were, I would be proud of them. I would be like the man in the joke, who wrote “Humility and How I Attained It”, with many large pictures of himself, “suitable for framing”.

So elusive is this quality of humility! Many years ago the famous preacher H. A. Ironside, pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, was struggling with pride. So one day he rigged a big sandwich-board sign which said, “I am a fool for Christ”. He wore it all day and walked all over Chicago, as people pointed, whispered, and laughed. All day long he thought to himself, “Finally, I am going to learn to be humble!” At the end of the day, exhausted, Dr. Ironside removed the sign from his shoulders. Immediately the thought came to him, “Not many people in the whole city of Chicago could have done that”, as once again he felt himself swell with pride. Instantly he knew that his day, and all his efforts, had been wasted.

About two years ago I was in a pastors’ fellowship meeting on a Monday morning. Everyone was talking about a big scandal that had just occurred in one of the local churches. Some deacons had done something really dumb. As a gag, they had hired a stripper to perform at a birthday party. When the pastor heard about it the next Sunday, he hit the ceiling! He gave these deacons a scathing rebuke, then resigned from the church on the spot, and walked out without even conducting the morning service!

As you can understand, this pastors’ meeting was abuzz with gossip. Many opinions were expressed about whether we should “take our stand” against the church or its embarrassed deacons, commend the pastor for “taking his stand”, or just what should we do. There was a lot of talk. Nothing makes us more vocal than a situation when we can talk about somebody who did something that we would “never” do.

When the talk finally subsided, our host called on our director to “lead in prayer”. We were all feeling quite superior and self-righteous that morning—until he prayed. I shall never forget his prayer. “Lord, please have mercy upon my sinful, sorry self,” he began. “Dear God, you know that I fail you so much, so often, so deeply, so carelessly, Lord! I am so sorry for the way I am! I know that it’s only because of your love and grace that a sinner like me could ever be forgiven and be your child. I am so ashamed of myself! Oh, please have mercy on me!”

In case you missed it, this man was in no way associated with the scandal we had been discussing. He was simply looking into his own heart and had found no room to criticize anybody else, and found no reason to feel superior.

Tears began to break out at that pastors’ meeting, as each of us began to pray similar prayers. A strange man with nail prints walked into our meeting. It happened all because one man with stark, radical, genuine humility had dared to expose his heart in public prayer. The gossip was over. We were finally “minding our own business”, which is the business of honesty and repentance concerning our own sin and unworthiness.

Humility. If I will be just be honest, I have a lot to be humble about. It really shouldn’t be that hard for me. How about you?