bible blog post Monday March 2nd

A Humble Life (Mark 10:32-45)

You can not read Mark 10:32-45 without seeing the juxtaposition of pride and humility.  We see the self-seeking pride of the disciples in contrast to Christ's life of humble servant hood and the foretelling of his violent death at the hands of the spiritually proud chief priests and teachers of the law.  It is a clear visual difference of living with a mindset of pride vs. humility.

Pride is any time we think of our self, our needs, our wants, our abilities, etc. above others. It can be blatant or even more dangerous it can be hidden.  Pride can even try and mask itself as humility.  It can take the form of half-hearted lowliness when we displays appeasement to another simply because we desires to be acknowledged or seen as humble in order to be held up in a higher light, to be seen as more spiritual than another.  Both the blatant and masked pride stem from a focus on self.  Not willing or truly wanting to listen to another or being stubborn and only being able to see our way as right or best.  It is thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought.  Pride comes in many forms and we should be in constant prayer seeking for the Lord to reveal any obvious or hidden pride that we have allowed to take up residence in our hearts and minds.

Christ challenges us to live a humble life as a servant to everyone.  C.S. Lewis said, "True humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less".  To think of yourself less means you have to think of others more.  What are the needs of others?  What truly makes that other person the way they are?  How can I come along side others and build them up according to what their needs truly are and not what I think they need?  To live a humble life is to be willing to listen to the heart of others even when it beats different from my own.  To live a humble life is to put aside my need to be right and to serve and love those whom I might feel are wrong.  To live a humble life is to understand that my way is not always the best or right way.  To live a humble life is to acknowledge when I am wrong even if it hurts.  To live a humble life is to remember that I am not perfect and am in need of humble people to love me and so I choose to do likewise.  When we truly desire to live a humble life we seek the Lord's intervention and ask him to help us to have eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to love and forgive those in need.

My prayer is that each of us who call Christ our savior and friend would truly live our lives towards each other with the same love and humility of Christ.  Let us be a beacon of light to the world for the Lord by living our lives in humble love towards each other just as Christ did for us.