Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Philippians 2:3 (NLT)
Sometimes the hardest thing about my day is dealing with people. They can be so annoying. I know that doesn’t sound very Christlike; but hear me out.
A little while ago I was sitting in a meeting and honestly, when I left I was just so bothered. There was the person who snorted disapprovingly after I said something. There was the other attendee who was super kind but I wasn’t sure grasped what we were trying to do. There was the woman who wanted to reschedule a meeting we’d had on the calendar for months because she schedule a conflict.
I sit in these meetings and all of these thoughts pop into my head….which I cannot say out loud because that would really NOT be Christlike. We work through the issues and everything gets settled but I leave bothered. On this particular occasion, every time I thought about it I was bothered again. So I decided to bring in the big guns and I prayed about it.
As I did, I remembered a conversation we recently had in Bible Study about humility. Learning humility is hard and it is a life-long lesson. You see, being humble isn’t about plastering a smile on your face, saying what is politically correct and moving on. It’s about the state of your heart.
Do I believe in my core that others are better than me? WOW! That goes against all that we are taught in western society doesn’t it? But it was Christ’s way. Philippians 2 says:
6 Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
If I want to be like Jesus, this is the example I have to follow. I fully admit it is going to take some work. In a lot of situations I am fine with this but there are days where I am terrible at it. So what am I going to do about it? I am going to try to refrain from saying things out loud, put a smile on my face and pray right then and there that God will change me. I am going to ask him to help me see everyone as he sees them and to soften my heart to be like Jesus.
I may not fully get there until Jesus comes but I just have to do it today. Every day I try to be like Jesus, that day will be a success.