Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Oooh, lots to say today!Ill do this like Im writing a paper for college so that my ideas actually make sense to the reader =)
What is Humility?
Original word: “tapeinophrosune”= “the confession of sin and a deep realization of unworthiness to received Gods marvelous grace”
That is all right and good, but where is the JOY in a definition like that? Are we aware of the Good humility offers? Not just the down-and-out unworthiness that we bear?
-My view of Humility- being so aware that God is doing His thang with us, that we simply dont even Think to notice ourselves! Not necessarily “putting others first” consciously (though that’s how growing in humility starts)…
Ok, “It isnt thinking Bad about ourselves, it’s not thinking about ourselves at all!” Does that make sense to everyone??
(btw, I read that in a book but cant remember what book and when…)
Humility= NOT self-bashing. If God loves you as you are, who are you Not to?
Humility= Freedom! Freedom from working up a latter (social latter, whatever!) with hot clothes, the right friends, $$, good and perfect body, work skills, athletic talents, artsy talents, the right interests, the right music, the right movies and tv shows, saying the right thing, knowing when to say it, … on and on and on!!
Humility- its not being Aloof and “Above” that stuff, but simply not considering it. Those arent bad things in and of themselves, but they turn into IDOLS when used for personal Gain!
Humility enabled Paul to proclaim: “but I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” in Acts 20:24
What we do in this life will not be failure. The book The Mists of Avalon pulls it together in the end- King Arthur is dying, and war is coming thru his land again. Hes in his sister Morgains arms, asking ‘Did I Fail? I was supposed to bring PEACE.’ He asks her this, while shes asking the exact same thing about her work, just as I, Jana, ask the same thing about mine. Heres how it goes:
“It was my own question, and I had no answer; but from somewhere, the answer came. ‘You did not fail, my brother, my love, my child… None of us knows how [He] will do [His] will—only that it will be done.’ And I knew not, even then, whether what I spoke was truth, or whether I spoke to comfort him, in love, as with the little child Igraine had put into my arms when I was but a child myself…”
and in the end
“No, we did not fail… I did not fail. I did what [He] had given me to do. It was not [He] but I in my pride who thought I should have done more.”
Short version, its basically as Adam likes to say, “get over yourself!”
My Prayer: May the Lord bless us with humble spirits, that we celebrate humility not in awareness of it, but in the freedom it gives us. Thank you Lord for such a precious gift!
Posted by jana at 10:45 AM
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Monday, March 13, 2006
a post for the sake of posting...