Foundational to the life we’ve been called to as the people of God is the virtue of humility. Real humility is a hallmark of new life in Christ. I don’t mean the kind of humility that blushes and says, “You’re so kind to say that” while inwardly thinking, “You have no idea just how right you are to think so highly of me.” I mean the kind of humility born of a true knowledge of self. Humility born of knowing exactly who and what you are.
The most humbling thing in the world is to see yourself as you are rather than, as you want to be. The real you not the one you hope others see. I find the reading of The Valley of Vision (a collection of Puritan prayers) good for my soul. It is good because it is so different from most things you find from contemporary writers. I saw myself this morning in my reading:
Thou art good beyond all thought, but I am vile, wretched, miserable, blind; my lips are ready to confess, but my heart is slow to feel, and my ways reluctant to amend…My faculties have been a weapon of revolt against thee; as a rebel I have misused my strength, and served the foul adversary of thy kingdom…Grant that through the tears of repentance I may see more clearly the brightness and glories of the saving cross.
We tend to read that as self-loathing. That’s not it at all. It’s genuine humility. Recognizing I’m a sinner owing my life to the grace of God. It’s life free from of delusion and grounded in reality. It is a life that glories in the grace of God. Life’s a lot freer when you stop pretending.
I’ll see you Sunday.
Rod