Humility

     "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no."  This scripture verse, from Deuteronomy 8:2, has spoken to me recently.  Any of us who grew up in the R.L.D.S. church know of a major split that occurred in 1984.  While the reason, and/or the people behind it are important, they are not the point of this particular post.  Even more pressing, to my mind, is the realization that we are still "in the wilderness" since the split, and our continued wandering is a product of our own decisions. Considering the scripture quoted above, we are now in the 35th year of wandering.  My concern is, that we are all too comfortable in our scattered state to really care enough to look into how we can be brought back together, as one church again.

     In the scripture noted, the Lord gives 4 reasons why he had the children of Israel wander for forty years: to humble them, to prove them, to know their hearts, and to see if they would keep his commandments.  I would like to begin to look at each of these reasons, separately, in upcoming blog posts.  Today, I wish us to consider humility.

     Christian life has suffered great loss, because believers have not been distinctly guided to see that nothing in life is more natural and beautiful, than to be nothing, so that God may be all.  It has not been made clear that it is not sin that humbles us, but grace.  We live in an era when it is assumed that one can be a Christian, and still serve self.  In this, we err.  When God created the universe, it was with the one object of making man the partaker of His perfection, and of showing in creation, the glory of His love, His wisdom, and His power.  Even today, God wishes to reveal himself, in and through us believers, the communication and revelation of himself to all of His creation. Let's consider Isaiah 6: 1-8  "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.  Above it stood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.  And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.  And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.  Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar;  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me." 
    
     A lot to consider here.  I believe this to be one of THE greatest worship experiences recorded in scripture.  King Uzziah is mentioned because, history tells us, that Isaiah was a first cousin of the king.  Not only did he have royal blood, but he was also a prophet of the most high God.  It would seem easy to allow a little pride in occasionally.  How do we know?  Because of his reaction to seeing the King of Kings in vision.  "I am undone" is quite a phrase.  Imagine yourself being a piece of rope, created at a certain length, for a certain purpose by God.  Pride, or lack of humility, creates knots in the rope that actually reduce the ability of the created rope to function to the length intended.  When Isaiah beheld the glory of God, all of his pride crumbled; the knots became "undone".  The recognition of his filthy rags of sin had convicted Isaiah of his unworthiness, and left him without hope.  This is what sin does-separates us from God.  But the vision doesn't end there.  God has mercy upon him.  As the seraphim flies to Isaiah, and touches his lips with the coal, God is extending grace, and forgives Isaiah his sins.  This is true humility: to recognize your inability to save yourself, and then recognize the grace of God to you that sets you free.  Isaiah's response: "here am I, send me!"

     Humility is the place of entire dependence on God. Humility is the root of every virtue, the soil in which the fruit of the Spirit take root and grow.  Humility is not something we offer to God, but it is the sense of entire nothingness, which comes from when we see how truly God is all, and in which we make way for God to be all.  No tree can grow except on the root from which it sprang.  Through all its existence, it can only live with the life that was in the seed that gave it being.

     Humility is not an act; it's a life.  Sometimes it's easy to think of ourselves as humble before God, yet in all truth, humility toward others will be the only sufficient proof that our humility before God is real.  It is in our relationship to one another, in our treatment of one another, that the true lowliness of mind and the humility of heart are to be seen.  This is the true self-denial to which our Savior calls us; the acknowledgement that self has nothing good in it except as an empty vessel which God alone must fill.  Our humility before God has no value, except that it prepares us to reveal the love of Jesus to our fellow men.  We are called to be a light unto this world.  It is in the depth of humility that God can set us ablaze, for his glory and honor.  To this end, may we labor together.  God bless.