When we were first getting to know each other I said something that was a bit rude to her. I didn't mean to be rude - but what I said hurt her feelings. She said that at first she was sort of angry with me, but after a few weeks she decided that no matter what she was going to be my friend.
That is amazing to me. I would hope that I would have the maturity to do that, but I am not sure that I would.
That is humility - that is real love applied to another person who is undeserving!
I have an issue with justice (which is really humility), I want to see justice win out. I want the truth to be known and it bothers me when it is not. In fact it bothers me greatly when I know that a liar got away with a lie, or a theif got away with stealing, a cheater cheated and didn't get caught, or a gossip was believed like they told the gospel truth. These things really get under my skin. Here is what my humble friend had to say to me:
John 1 says 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God..... and the Word was made flesh.....Jesus Christ.
Jesus was there are creation. He, as part of the Godhead, shaped the universe, created all things, and was worshipped endlessly.
But then Jesus, even though He was all powerful, mighty, magestic, clothed in glory, was born on earth. There is nothing quite as disusting as a birth. How humiliating it would be for Him to be born, how grevious to have someone change you, to fall and scrape your knee, to live on earth for 30 years as a man - how degrading that must have been for him. Everything He did was to serve me, and He did not complain, He did not cry out at the injustice of His situation - but instead said 'Thy will be done."
In the hours before Jesus' crusifiction Jesus, wearing a towel around His waist, washes the feet of the disciples - all 12 of them.
None will stay with Him
One will deny Him
One will doubt Him
One will betray Him
Still Jesus humbles himself even further to teach them about serving one another and Love.
Later, when the guards come to arrest him in the garden Jesus says "I AM" and they stumble back before Him, his creation obeys unwillingly, unknowingly, before God - and still he allows himself to be beaten and tourtured and humiliated to the point of death.
If Christ can suffer all of that for me, what right do I have to seek justice instead of humility?
She's right - I have no right.
Then she pointed out Psalms 73
73:1 Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them. [1]
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them. [1]
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength [2] of my heart and my portion forever.
you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength [2] of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
It isn't about me and everyone else and God, it is about me and God. I can live in love and humility with them, even when they are liars, cheaters, gossips and just plain sinners because I too have sinned and because in spite of that hurt love and humility have been applied to my life. I do not have to be a brute before God, I can instead be his child.
Thank you friend!
Amanda
