Humility

Gravy makes everything better!

Gravy and humility are two things seldom discussed. When asked what your favorite Thanksgiving food is, do you reply “gravy!” Or for you, is it the sweet potato casserole? Maybe the pumpkin pie? Or how about cranberry relish – my personal favorite. Even if gravy is mentioned, it is in combination with the mashed potatoes. I haven’t, until Kyle, ever heard anyone just say “gravy!”

Humility – not proud or arrogant.
A humble person doesn’t brag and if someone is
bragging about being humble, well – then they’re not.

“Humility”, Kyle explained, “is like gravy. It is wildly underrated. Just as spoiled gravy will seep into all the food on your plate and ruin it, a lack of real humility can seep into all the crevices of a Christian’s life and well – ruin it!

Ok. I agree. I don’t think it was the best analogy, but I wasn’t the one preaching! ?

I do agree with Kyle’s point. Humility is key to every life lived for Jesus. Just as the gravy touches everything on your plate, humility touches (or it should) every aspect of the Christian life.

Today’s world isn’t about humility though. It is about the spectacular. The most spectacular home, the most spectacular movie special effects, the most spectacular amusement park, and the most spectacular athletes. One upmanship exists in everything we do from cooking competitions, to shopping competitions, to parading our children and families in front of television cameras. Even our news shows now only report the spectacular and if it isn’t spectacular enough, they spin the story to make it so.

The first step to humility is sincerity.

When we aim for humble, we become more sincere, more real or in today’s terminology – more authentic. Humility isn’t about bragging or showing off. It isn’t about one-upping others or pretending to be something we are not. And if we are going to walk with Jesus, walk as Jesus walked, we will need to learn and understand what it means to be humble.

You never heard Jesus say something like this:

“Yo, Peter. Did you see the faces of the crowd when I performed that miracle and healed the leper? Or how about the time I raised Lazarus from the dead. That was awesome, wasn’t it? Bet I’m going to get a lot of followers from that one!”

Instead, Jesus said these words:

And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make
an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

Luke 5:14

And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.”

Matthew 9:30

Humility isn’t about bragging or showing off. It also isn’t about self-abasement.

Jesus never uttered these words anywhere in the bible after performing a miracle:

“It was nothing. I just got lucky. It wasn’t my best miracle, but I’ll do better on the next one.”

Humble people are not self-focused; they are other-focused. Humble Christians “stop evaluating people from a human point of view (including themselves) and begin evaluating others the way God does.” Humble Christians see everyone – even the people we deem ‘the bad guys’ as children of God. We pray for them, we support them, and if they run away from God, we run after them.

We are Christ’s ambassadors. We have a mission. We are to race after those who don’t know God, who have turned away from him and show them a new way of life. People who don’t follow God are not our enemies. They are the ones Christ wants us to seek and with them, share the good news of our Savior.

We show others how great our God is through our actions – through being humble servant leaders because actions speak louder than words.

Humility is racing to the back of the line.

Show others Christ wherever you are. Let others fill their plates first; let a mom or dad with children go in front of you at the grocery store even if they have more items than you; let others out in front of you in a crowded parking lot. Count others a more important than yourself this week – this season.

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less.”

Have a blessed and wonderful week!

– psg –