Antithetical

I was in a meeting the other night that got a little heated at one point. The subject, of all things, was humility. Who knew that this subject would engender such strong emotions? Humility, according to Webster's, means to demonstrate a humble character. It is also defined as having a modest opinion of one's own sense of importance. I would be willing to bet if Gallup was to take a poll, humility wouldn't even make the Top 20 List of desirable character traits to possess in this country.

We are, after all, the nation of self esteem. Walk thru the self help section of your favorite Barnes and Noble if you don't believe me. Literally thousands of books line the shelves written with one express purpose in mind: to make us feel and think better of ourselves. It starts at an early age. Every six year old gets a trophy or a ribbon. Lest their self esteem be damaged by losing....

We have become so culturally conditioned by this notion that it is imperative that we think much of ourselves in order to be mentally healthy, that we recoil when confronted with the truth of The Gospel. Which you might expect from non- believers. That makes sense. But the biggest push back I have ever witnessed of this is within the church! The minute anything is said in a sermon or prayer about humbling one's self, or taking a lower place, or being the last instead if the first, or being the servant of all, the word I have most often heard is "negative". The perception of one who speaks these things is that they are negative and that this is bad! Listen, I grew up Catholic. I know all about negativity and guilt! It is one of the primary reasons I am no longer a practicing Catholic. But I have learned some things
recently about humility that have changed my mind about this much maligned virtue. The most important perhaps being that "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble". 1 Peter 5:5. This is a strong statement. Think about that. God opposes the proud. He's not just irritated by pride, but He opposes those who are proud! That's not something I want or need, let me tell you! The other half of this scripture is perhaps even more important- He gives grace to the humble. Is there anything more valuable than this in our lives? I know that I personally need every thimbleful of God's grace that He is willing to bestow on me....

What I have really come to the conclusion of recently is that the Christian Journey is, for the most part, antithetical to our modern American culture. I don't know why this has come as such a surprise to me, but it has. I used to think that I could keep a foot in both worlds. What I increasingly see is that this is just not possible. Because The Gospel pretty much teaches the opposite of what we believe as a society. However, in an attempt to make it more palatable to the masses, The Church has watered the message down so as not to offend anyone. This is so prevalent and pervasive that someone who actually does present the Gospel accurately gets a lot of push back. Which shouldn't surprise me either. Look at what happened to Christ for preaching this counter culture message over 2000 years ago!

So what's my final thought on self esteem? A good friend of mine puts it this way "the more self aware you become, the less self esteem you will have". Or perhaps better said "the more self aware you become, the more reason you have to embrace humility". Shalom!