Inadequate Humility

What is humility? What does it look like? What does it truly mean to be humble? How about prideful? Is it not easy to sport a prideful person 100 miles away? Do you consider yourself to be ‘humble’? For many of us being humble looks like restraint when we do something awesome. We find ourselves deflecting praise, just so we don’t look like we are full of ourselves. As Christians we are called to live humble lives. This can be interpreted in a multitude of fashions. To some it may look like living within their means, others it may mean diverting all attention all attention away from ones self. It could look like a quite life that does not get in the way of anyone else around us. With all these different interpretations what does it mean to live a humble life in the Christian walk?

Another interpretation of Christian humility in which I find prevalent in Christian culture today is a mindset of inadequacy. We have been taught we are terrible sinners, we crucified Jesus and continue to crucify him each day of our wretched lives. We begin to believe these teachings, and we start to become emotionally distraught over these ‘truths’. We begin to feel like the worst sinner, like Paul, we feel like no matter what we do it is nothing better than filthy rags. I hear so many people, almost hopelessly say I am nothing without Christ, as if they truly believed they were nothing. In reality we are all nothing without Christ, he holds the universe together, he chooses to let it go of course we are going to be nothing.

When people say they are nothing without Christ, I feel like there is a great emphasis on the first clause, and what people are really saying is they believe they are truly worth nothing...and I wish I could be empowered to be better than what I am right now, and I look to this ‘hope’ in Christ that is supposed to make me something but all I hear is how worthless I am. We find ourselves focused so much on the first clause of that statement when we sing songs like ‘How Great the Father’s Love for Us, we find ourselves continually beating ourselves up because of the guilt we feel for it was our sin that nailed him to the cross. Praise and worship becomes a funeral instead of a celebration, instead of living in the freedom and joy the second clause, we choose to believe that we are inadequate for God to truly love us and redeem us. We have had it driven into us so much that we are nothing, we expect nothing less for ourselves. We hear sermons to be humble and that humility looks like sacrificing ourselves, laying our lives down for Christ, doing his will over our will, and most of all never being prideful because that as we all know is one of the most deadly and despairing sins of all, it made the top seven.

What I would like to suggest is we have a distorted picture of what pride looks like. We think, if pride is thinking highly about oneself, then the opposite of pride is thinking as lowly as possible about oneself and if humility is the antidote for pride then we must do all we can to achieve the opposite idea of pride. This thinking leading us to feel inadequate, for if we felt we were worth something we would flirting with pride. The problem with this kind of thinking is it doesn’t work this way. We are so concerned with trying to be the opposite of prideful we miss that humility is not designed to be the opposite of pride, but it is to be the antidote, or cure for pride.

I would also like to suggest that the feeling of inadequacy is yet just another form of pride. When you break down pride and ask what pride really is you find that pride is nothing more than a false self-image which causes us to focus upon ourselves more than others. It is really easy to spot pride in someone who has a more than elevated self-image, this what we are typically used to identifying as pride. But the same thing could be true of a person who has a less than human, or worthless self-image. Both are perfect examples of pride, and both leave people thinking more about their elevated or inadequate self than caring for the needs of others.

It is unfortunate more Christians fit the mold of pride while all in the name of humility and obedience to Christ. It breaks my heart and Christ’s heart when we choose to justify our feeling of inadequacy in his name.

So you maybe asking what is humility then if it is not the opposite of pride? What is humility when I find out my humility is more pride than anything? How is humility the antidote or cure for the pride in my life?

Let me use the apostle Paul for an example in answering these questions, especially since we use Paul the most in justifying our inadequacies. First Paul did say, “I am the worst of sinners,” but he also said it was for that very reason Christ died, and Christ did not remain dead for if he did our faith would be useless, but instead he was resurrected from the dead bringing life to all who believe in Him. He also says that, ‘no one is righteous, no not one’ giving us grounds to justify our inadequacies again. But let me suggest that Paul’s greater point and focus was in his confidence he had in Christ. Paul uses the resurrection to declare the truth of the gospel around the world. We seem him beaten, flogged, stoned, shipwrecked, naked and imprisoned, yet do we ever see Paul utter a single word of complaint? Do we see Paul ever look at his suffering and feel bad about himself? Does Paul ever make a statement about being inadequate without following it up with the joy, power, and confidence he has in Jesus Christ.

Let me suggest the humble life is the life that is confident in Jesus Christ. It is a life that does not allow ones circumstances in life to define them, but it is a life that defines life’s circumstances. It is a life which seeks to see the work of Christ in ever circumstance. It is a live in which is defined by the words of Christ. It is a life that is worthy to be called righteous, fruitful. We are called to live a life of royalty, with the understanding the only way to the thrown room is through a life full of suffering while remaining confident in the Truth. The identity we have in Christ is true for all people, humility is being able to accept his identity for ourselves and remain confident in His ways and his truth.

Do you find yourself inadequately humble? Repent now, find joy and confidence in who God says you are. You are a chosen generation, a royal generation, the crown and glory of creation, the light of the world, and dearly beloved. The only question will be if you will humble yourself and live in the unchanging truth and identity in which we were created for.