I heard recently about a man who took great pride in being a former Navy Seal. And why not? This is an elite group. It takes a special sailor to qualify as a Navy Seal.
This man tells about sharing his military exploits with his grandson’s kindergarten class. This former Seal regaled the children with his war stories. After he finished, hands shot up into the air all over the classroom. The kids were eager to ask questions. "So," asked one little girl, "can you balance a ball on the end of your nose?" Well, to be sure, a Navy Seal ought to be able to balance a ball on the end of his nose.
Life has a way of humbling us, doesn’t it? We think we are impressing people, and all they want is to see us balance a ball on the end of our nose. Our scriptures for today all have one thing in common: we see a man who was humbled.
In the year King Uzziah died the prophet Isaiah had a vision. Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up. And the hem of God’s robe filled the temple. Hovering around the Lord, Isaiah saw mighty seraphim; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And Isaiah said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" That was Isaiah’s initial response to this magnificent vision: "Woe is me! I am lost . . ." Isaiah was humbled in the presence of God.
Then we turn to I Corinthians 15 where the Apostle Paul is writing about Christ’s resurrection. Here is what he says, "For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God."
That was Paul’s response to the risen Christ’s appearance to him on the Damascus Road: "I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God."
Finally, in Luke’s Gospel, it is Simon Peter’s turn. Now here is an unlikely candidate to exhibit humility--gregarious, outspoken Simon Peter. Jesus is teaching beside the lake of Gennesaret. The crowd is pressing in on him. He sees two boats on shore. The fishermen are washing their nets. Jesus gets into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asks him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sits down and teaches the crowds from the boat. When he finishes speaking, he says to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answers, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they did this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" In the presence of Jesus, Simon Peter was humbled.
Three great heroes of the Bible humbled: Isaiah, "Woe is me! I am lost . . . "; The Apostle Paul, "I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle . . . "; Simon Peter, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" We see all three men in a state of deep contrition--humbled in the presence of the living God.
Humility is an important theme in scripture. C. S. Lewis contends that, scripturally, pride--the opposite of humility--is the essential vice of humanity, the ultimate evil. And he is right. Pride is our deadliest adversary. In the epistle of James we read these words: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
Humility is such an integral part of what it means to be Christian, that I believe we need a clear understanding of what true humility is--and what it is not.
HUMILITY IS NOT LOW SELF-ESTEEM. If you have a poor self image, if you think you can’t lift your voice because you are not as good as other people, if you cannot look others in the eye, if you let other people run over you and will not stand up for your rights as a human being, do not count that as humility. It is not.
Author Larry Crabb writes about a therapist who in his group therapy would have the participants play a game he called Top Secret. He’d ask the participants in the group to write out the one thing about themselves that they would not want other people to know. They were then asked to return the paper unsigned. Over the years, one answer consistently emerged as the most frequently admitted top secret: "I feel utterly worthless," his participants would write. "No one would want me if they knew me." (1)
Friends, that sounds like humility, but it is not. We often make that mistake. The person with eyes downcast, shrinking in the corner--the doormat, whom other people walk all over--this is not what it means to be a humble Christian. This is a person with low self-esteem. This is a person perhaps with life-long feelings of worthlessness, unacceptability, failure. This is a sad human being. Do not call him or her humble.
Dr. James Dobson tells about a sad little girl named Lily, an 8th grader, who was referred to him for psychological counseling. Lily opened the door of his office and stood with eyes downcast. Underneath several layers of powder and makeup, her face was completely aglow with infected acne. Lily had done her best to bury the inflammation, but she had not been successful. She weighed about 85 pounds and was a physical wreck from head to toe. She sat down without raising her eyes. He didn’t need to ask what was troubling her. Life had dealt her a devastating blow, and she was bitter, angry, broken, and deeply hurt. The teenager who reaches this point of despair, says Dr. Dobson, can see no tomorrow. There is no hope. She can’t think of anything else. Such an adolescent feels repulsive and disgusting and would like to crawl into a hole, but there is no place to hide. Running away won’t help, nor will crying change anything. Too often suicide seems the best way out.
Lily gave Dr. Dobson little time to work. The following morning she staggered into the school office and announced that she had ingested everything in the family medicine cabinet. They labored feverishly to retrieve the medication and finally succeeded on the way to the hospital. Lily survived physically, but her self-esteem and confidence had died years earlier, says Dr. Dobson. The scars on her sad face symbolized the wounds of her adolescent heart. (2)
There are many Lilies in our world. Jesus loves them, not because of their wounded spirits, but in spite of those wounds. Lily might be the sweetest girl in her Sunday School class, but that does not mean she has a healthy faith in herself, or God. She does not.
Humility is not low self-esteem. God wants us to have a healthy respect for ourselves, just as we have a healthy respect for others. We are not to esteem ourselves more highly than others, but we are not to esteem ourselves too lowly either. Neither extreme is healthy. Neither extreme is socially nor spiritually constructive. People with no ego are not apt to contribute much to our world. People with too much ego are apt to be arrogant and to abuse others.
HUMILITY HAS TO DO WITH HOW WE VIEW OURSELVES IN OUR RELATION TO GOD. Simon Peter was no shrinking violet. Neither was St. Paul. Nor was Isaiah. These were men who changed our world, but before they could be used of God, they needed to know who they were in relation to God. They were men of talent, men of vision, men who had the ability to influence others. But it was only when they stood in the presence of God that they understood that they were not masters of their universe. God is the Master of the universe, and they were but role players. Actors. Tools in the hand of Almighty God. When they understood that about themselves, then they became effective instruments of the Divine Will.
Author Philip Yancey once made a list of the people who have most influenced him. He stared at the list for some time before realizing that all of the people on his list had one trait in common: humility.
Does this mean that they had a negative self-image? Not at all. These people excelled in school, won awards, and had absolutely no reason to doubt their gifts and abilities. Humility was, for them, an ongoing choice to credit God for their natural gifts, and then to use those gifts in God’s service.
Yancey was enormously influenced by Dr. Paul Brand, a physician who volunteered in India as the first orthopedic surgeon to work with leprosy patients. He listed Henri Nouwen, a former professor at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard, who ended up devoting his life to the mentally handicapped in institutions in France and Toronto. Neither of these men had a low opinion of his own worth or abilities. In spite of that, and because of their relationship with God, they chose to serve the least and the lowest. (3)
Do you understand what I am saying? God can use people of all kinds of persuasions and personality types, but God can best use a person who has a healthy sense of his or her own self-worth--who understands that he or she is a creation of God, and, therefore, responsible to God for using his or her gifts in service to God and humanity. God did not call us to be doormats. God did not call us to go around with eyes downcast thinking that we are not good enough to matter in the world. I don’t know anyone who has ever contributed much to the kingdom who did not have a healthy sense of their own self-worth.
You might say, what about Mother Teresa? Well, what about Mother Teresa? Mother Teresa was a feisty woman who did not back down in the presence of the most powerful men. She had a stronger will and sense of purpose than any of them. She definitely was never a doormat. She chose to be a servant of the poor and the outcast because of the presence of Jesus in her heart. But it was a choice. It was not because she felt herself to be unworthy, unacceptable, unloved. If any of these adjectives fit you, you need to get help. You are a child of God. You have no reason to feel inferior to anyone on this planet. Only in the presence of God should you feel unworthy. God loves you. Jesus died for you. There is no one on this earth more important than you. However, there is no one on this earth who is any less important than you are as well. We are all loved. We all belong.
BUT NOTICE ONE THING MORE: HOW THESE MEN IN OUR SCRIPTURE LESSON RESPONDED TO THEIR EXPERIENCE OF GOD. Isaiah writes, "Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!" That was Isaiah’s response, "Send me."
Paul’s response: "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." Did you get that? Paul felt he was unworthy because he had persecuted the believers. So, what did he do? He worked harder than all the rest to be what God called him to be.
As for Simon Peter? Jesus said to him, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." Simon Peter left everything and followed Jesus.
What shall we say to all of this? If you are the kind of person who devalues your own worth as a human being, you need to get help with that. Jesus does not want disciples who do not believe in themselves. You will not be effective in serving him. It’s time for you to raise your eyes and say to the world, "I belong here. I don’t have to be intimidated in anyone’s presence but God’s." On the other hand, if you are one of those people--and there are many of them nowadays--who thinks the world revolves around you, it’s time for you to confront the fact that you are mere dust, carved out of the ground by the hand of God. To dust you will one day return. There is only one Master of the universe and it’s not you, and until you humble yourself before God and ask God for the mind of Christ, you will never know true peace. However, if you will humble yourself and align yourself with God’s purpose for your life, you will leave your mark on your world. And you will know a satisfaction that you will not know any other way.
1. Larry Crabb, The Safest Place on Earth (Nashville: Word, 1999), p. 63.
2. Stories of the Heart and Home (Word Publishing, Nashville, 2000).
3. Philip Yancey, "Humility’s Many Faces," Christianity Today, December 4, 2000.