By Kevin Barron
I’ve been thinking lately about what it means to be humble. Maybe it’s because as I get older, my shortcomings and inabilities are more obvious to me, and to others as well, I’m sure. I decided to write this column about humility when I read something on Facebook. This post, if we can believe it, was about Taylor Swift. I know next to nothing about her.
I know she is a singer, but I couldn’t name a single song she has written or sung. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to her sing a song at all.
But I do enjoy football, and her name has come up the last few months in relation to Travis Kelce, tight end on the Kansas City Chiefs. Taylor is attending the Chiefs games when she can in order to cheer on her boyfriend. And what I read on Facebook told about the first time she was at a game with Travis’ family and whoever else was in the box to watch Travis play. The post says that, at one point during the game, Taylor stood to go get something else to eat or drink, take a call, whatever reason.
And Travis Kelce’s dad watched, and was shocked, as Taylor Swift noticed the trash around her, the usual stuff at a game, empty food containers and so on, and proceeded to start picking up trash and throwing it away. Assuming the story is true, Taylor Swift is either OCD or has a quality about her we can all admire: the willingness to do something that seems to be below your position in life. Humility, in other words.
Is that what it means to be humble? Is that ALL it means to be humble? Maybe I should note what humility is NOT. To be humble doesn’t mean you’re a pushover who is insecure all the time. The Apostle Paul demonstrates what it means to not be insecure when he wrote to the Corinthians, a bunch of church people who caused him all sort of problems.
He did not sugarcoat things. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:21, “What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?” In other words, you pick the weapons and we are going to have a battle. He did not apologize for confronting.
We all need to be the man or woman God has created us to be in Christ, and lacking the confidence to do that does not makes us humble. Nor does it mean I am humble if I sit back and wait for life to happen to me instead of getting out there and pushing forward for God.
Jesus himself was unimpressed by such a lazy attitude, and he criticizes people who are like that more than once.
So what IS humility? Here are some answers to that question. One response is this: to be humble is to depend on God, not ourselves. I should all I can in various situations. I must be at work for God to do good in this world. But there often comes a time when I must admit I can’t and God can. In Luke 18, Jesus tells the story of two men at prayer in the temple. One, a Pharisee, was quick to inform God how fortunate the Almighty was to have a man like himself on his side. The other, a tax collector, wouldn’t even look up, but instead cried out, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus’ conclusion? “I tell you that this man (the tax collector), rather than the other (the Pharisee), went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Those who lift themselves up will be brought down. Those who bring themselves down will be lifted up. A sobering thought indeed.
To be humble also means I do not concern myself with power or its trappings in this world. That is such a hard pill to swallow, isn’t it? Shouldn’t we seek power in order to bring about good in this world, to elect the candidate I support, to pass the laws I think are best? But it is all a matter of perspective. Power and all its manifestations cannot be the goal of what we do; they are only tools to be used in service of God, our Almighty King. Any other use will absolutely corrupt us.
In the Gospel of Mark, the disciples were arguing one day about who was most important of the group. Jesus sobered them by simply explaining, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Harry S Truman, incidentally the only president who came from Missouri, said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” If I can manage to live life like that, I will find myself walking in the way of Christ.
One last demonstration of humility is found in total obedience to the Word of God. Jesus himself is our example here.
The Apostle Paul, in one of the most profound passages in Scripture, explains it like this: “Who (Jesus), being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8). I do not believe I will ever fully comprehend those words; it is the work of a lifetime.
But as we approach the season of Lent, with all its opportunities to remember what Jesus has done, and continues to do for us, let us consider what it means to be humble as Jesus was humble, and so live our lives, to the best of our efforts and faith, to be like Christ.
Kevin Barron is the pastor of Perryville and Crossroads United Methodist churches. He can be reached by phone at 573-547-5200 or via email at kdbarron@gmail.com.
