Be Humble

Just think… Nothing sets a person so much out of the Devil’s reach as humility.—Jonathan Edwards

Charles Schulz will long be remembered for his uncanny ability to capture the reality of childhood in his famous comic strip Peanuts. One that taught the subtlety of pride depicts Linus and Charlie Brown talking about their plans when they grow up. Linus says, “When I get big I’m going to be a humble little country doctor. I’ll live in the city, see, and every morning I’ll get up, climb into my sports car and zoom into the country! Then I’ll start healing people. I’ll heal everybody for miles around!” Then he concludes his speech with, “I’ll be a world-famous humble little country doctor.”

Even with the very best intentions, it’s so easy for us to get sucked up into the whirlwind of pride. We can start out with the most humble objectives, but somehow we always seem to end up stumbling over our own selfish desires and motives. So how can we avoid this wily web of deceiving ourselves into thinking we’re something that we really aren’t? I think Saint Paul gives us the answer to that dilemma, when he tells us to “consider others better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). When you think about it, it’s just good sense. If we focus our attention on others, we focus less attention on ourselves.

“A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.” Proverbs 29:23