Humility

We've been discussing attitude on the Joy Club. That's our missionary staff e-list. It's pretty tough to have a good attitude when you haven't humbled yourself, removing your pride, setting aside assumptions, and putting on a sweater of love. You know, that warm feeling of aloha. (Yes, still wishing I were back there!)


Imagine if I come to you, and tell you there's a small scab on your face that needs to be picked off. But as I approach, you hear me saying the words, but you can't believe it. My face is oozing with puss and cuts; I'm a bloody mess and it looks like I haven't tended to my wounds in days. But here I am telling you to clean up the little dried up scab on your cheek. You can barely even understand what I'm saying because this hideous deformation is so distracting.

You know, as horrid as it sounds, that is the example Christ was setting for us when he told us not to judge each other beyond what we are willing to first change about ourselves. He said to take the beam that is sticking out of our eye OUT before complaining about the sliver in someone elses' eye.

How do we do this? By humbling ourselves. By admitting that we are not perfect, and by checking that our motives are right when we approach one another about a flaw. It's about loving the other person closer to Jesus.

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. -Romans 12:3