When someone writes or speaks of humility it may appear they must be lacking it. And yes, I do struggle with pride and have too little humility. But I also think humility is worth talking about.

So at the risk of sounding proud, here is a post in praise of humility and warning against pride. I certainly need it. Maybe someone reading this needs it too.

What does God the Creator say about humility and pride? What he says matters because he's God. Part of humility is acknowledging that the word of God is true and final. It only makes sense that the Creator knows better than the people he created. Romans 9:20 "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?"

Of course that is one of the huge challenges of our day - creatures denying the Creator's truth and design for them. There really couldn't be a much more accurate name for this than pride. For any who embrace pride as an identity or a mantra or a cause to be celebrated or a way to show love, believe it or not, I want to show you love. 

The love I want to show may not be the kind of love you wish for. But it is genuine love. I want you to know what is true. It is not love to affirm a lie or to encourage someone to continue in a way that leads to misery and ultimately death. Here's the danger. Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." When in our pride we do what seems best to us instead of what God says, we go astray and are headed for death. That's why I truly believe the real expression of love is to tell the Creator's truth, not to affirm what one of his beautiful creatures feels or believes to be true.

So what does the Creator God say about humility and pride?

Humility is a virtue to be pursued and cultivated, while pride is an evil to be avoided and abandoned. Humility is found in the way that leads to life. Pride is the path to death. The humble person is willing to listen, while the proud delights in airing his opinion. The proud cares more about what they think and feel than of what God says.

• Proverbs 11:12 "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom."
• Proverbs 16:18-19 "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud."
• Philippians 2:3 "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves."
• Colossians 3:12-14 "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."
• Proverbs 12:15 "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice." The words pride and humility don't occur in that verse, but it perfectly captures both.

The pursuit of our own way in pride contrary to God's truth is dangerous, wicked, and ends in death. The pursuit of God's way in humility according to his word is safe, wise, and ends in life.

We live in a time and place and among a people where humility is desperately needed. Psalm 18:27 "For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down." I pray we will be humble to receive God's truth and not reject it. May it begin with me. And I would love to have a conversation about it with you.

There's a problem with this before it even gets started. I want to run something by folks who have a bit of standing and notoriety in the Evangelical Christian world. What's the problem? I don't really know anyone like that, so they'll never see this. I guess I'm just putting it in the wind, and maybe some lesser known folks might find some benefit.

What's so important that it merits a post whose target audience will never see it? I would like to encourage or maybe humbly challenge or just remind those with a little evangelical clout that what they say/post/publish does not affect just them. Of course, this is obvious. Isn't that what comes with having a platform? More people hear you; more followers appreciate what you say; more folks disagree. You get to deal with the accolades and the acrimony.

But there is another sort of effect that you will never have to deal with, but I will. I'm thinking of the impact of what you say on thousands of small churches in thousands of small towns and cities across the country. You write something with the potential to be controversial, and all of a sudden Paul in the pew wants to know what his pastor thinks about the latest kerfuffle you stirred up. And now the pastor of First Church of Nowheresville who had nothing to do with the kerfuffle and, in his small ministry, had little or no reason to address it, now has to address it.

He didn't write the post. He didn't stir up the controversy. You did. But now he has to deal with it. And maybe you just opened up a potential rift in that church that would not be there without your post. It's not hard, for example, to think of examples of big evangelical leaders dropping diametrically opposed dogmatic statements about a given issue. And people in the pews of that little church who were previously fairly content to keep their opinion to themselves are now validated by a well-known preacher. And now they are slightly less content with or perhaps a little more hostile toward their own lesser-known pastor (or fellow congregants) whose take is different than theirs.
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What's the point? With great platform comes great responsibility (or something like that). You have a stewardship of being known. Sometimes hard things need to be said by a voice that will be heard by many. Sometimes controversial things need to be published from a broader platform. But sometimes they don't. Some of the challenge of your stewardship is knowing when and what to say and when and what NOT to say. So this is a simple plea. Before you click publish, consider what difficulties your words might cause. Not only online or in your own bigger congregation (think about that too, of course!). But think also of the impact and challenges and division your words might create that you will never have to see or deal with. The small town pastor of the small church in that town thanks you.

*Tap, tap, tap* Hello? Looks like the blog feature of the website does still work. How 'bout that? 

Not many mornings ago, I was feeling a sense of, well, I'm not sure what exactly: a combination of guilt, being overwhelmed, wondering what I could (or should) do about some pretty ugly and sad things happening in our world. 

As many of you have, I'd seen some horrific news coming out of Afghanistan. At a humanitarian level what is  or will be happening to Afghans, US citizens remaining there, allies of the US, Christians, women, and others who find themselves on the wrong side of the Taliban's naughty/nice ledger is appalling. The pandemic is still a thing with all of it's attendant suffering. An earthquake in Haiti had left hundreds dead and thousands more homeless and fearful. On top of these global things, a local acquaintance recently had to leave their home because it had become a physically toxic, uninhabitable place to live. His words in a text: "We are in bad shape here & struggling to hang on."

As I sat in my comfortable chair, in my air-conditioned home, bills paid, free to worship according to my faith and conscience, and relatively healthy, I had the feeling I mention above: overwhelmed, guilty, wondering what I could/should do. I suspect I may not be the only one feeling something similar (if not now, then perhaps under other circumstances you've faced). Here are some principles I think we can bring to bear at times like these. I'll divide them into two categories seeking to alleviate false guilt but keeping us on the hook where we should be.

Avoid false guilt

1. You have to live where God put you. I was born in the USA, and for now God has put me in Warsaw, Indiana, not Kabul, Afghanistan. There's no guilt in that.
2. You must fulfill the responsibilities God has given you in the place he's put you. If you neglect your family to take care of someone else, somewhere else, someone will have to use their resources to take care of those you have neglected.
3. You can't do everything. Period. I've written about this before.
4. Trust the wise, good, sovereign God. None of it is outside his plan and control.

Don't avoid showing genuine, tangible compassion

1. Just because you must provide for your family doesn't mean that have to have the biggest, best, and most. If there's not room in your budget for the financial side of compassionately helping others, it may be time to make some budget cuts. Sacrificial giving is, well, sacrificial. Give generously.
2. You can't do everything, but you can and should do something. And if you don't plan in advance to do something, you probably won't. And the guilt will come with every new crisis. One very practical way to plan is with a budget. Besides what you give to the church, do you have a line in your budget for showing compassion and help to those in need? And do you have any margin in your schedule to be able to show up when someone needs your help?
3. I saw someone recently say something along the lines of "think globally, act locally,"  That's maybe not perfect, but it's good. You should know and be sympathetic towards those suffering in Afghanistan and Haiti, but you may not be able to directly impact what's happening there. You can tangibly help your neighbor.
4. Pray. This is crucial. It's not last in the list because it's an afterthought. It is literally how you enter into work all around the globe. So you actually can directly impact what's going on in places far beyond your physical reach.

This is clearly not an exhaustive list. Just some thoughts. Feel free to add yours in the comments here or on social media. The goal is not to leave us feeling neat, tidy, and unmoved by suffering. I hope we deeply sympathize with those who suffer. Then we want to funnel that sympathy into proper compassionate action without feeling needlessly guilty. If you're doing nothing, there's a problem. If you're overwhelmed with guilt about things beyond your control, there's a problem. As with so many things we need balance. God help us.

It's something you've probably heard almost since the pandemic began. "Can't wait until things are back to normal!" And as the time frame for the return to normalcy stretched from weeks to months now to a year, the desire and even desperation for normal has only grown. I get it. I can't wait either. I'm ready for masks to return to the domain of superheroes and kids who dress up like them. I wish that social distancing only referred to taking a step back from someone who has a different conception of personal space than you.

 But should everything go back to normal, to the way it was before? Maybe it would be good if a few things stayed the same. 

• If it was normal to have a functional belief in the invincibility of modern man to withstand whatever is thrown at us, it will be good to live with greater humility and an awareness of our vincibility. If God can bring the entire planet to its knees with a microscopic virus, shouldn't we be humble enough to acknowledge that blind confidence in advanced medical systems or financial systems or governments or power grids or clean water supply (or whatever you tend to trust in) is misplaced confidence? Apparently modern man has not conquered everything. Let's be thankful for the advances God allows us to make in all sorts of fields, but let's not go back to putting our trust in man. If it was normal to have small thoughts of God and big thoughts of man, I hope a pandemic reverses that.
• If it was normal to trust yourself more than God, you don't want to go back to that normal. The answer to trusting in man (see previous paragraph) is not to trust in ourselves. "I can't depend on them so I'll have to do it myself." Nope. Confidence in self is just as dangerous as confidence in others. What we need is confidence in the Creator. Of course we say we're dependent on God. But sometimes desperate circumstances reveal that we've actually been depending on ourselves, our jobs, our bank accounts, our skills, our strength, our wisdom. If the pandemic has revealed that you trust yourself more than God, praise him and pray that you will truly trust him and not return to self-reliance.
• If it was normal to take for granted assembling in person with your church family, I hope the pandemic has given a far greater appreciation for the gathered church. I hope every Sunday you are with the saints is precious and every Sunday you are hindered from being present is another reminder of how desperately you need it and how good God is to give it. If it was easy to make an excuse to miss worshiping with your church family before, I hope there will be no excuses now. 

Back to normal? Hopefully not in every way. What would you add to the list?

I preached this as a sermon a little over a month ago. True story. It may sound like I went all self-help and felt-needs, but I think if you give John 11:1-16 a read and listen to the sermon that it holds up.

So here's a summary for those facing illness. These things can be helpful for major illness, minor, Covid-19, or something else. For the full take and context you can listen to the sermon here. Or look here for the message on John 11:1-16.

From the sickness and death of Lazarus: 7 things to do when you or a loved one is sick.

1. Go straight to Jesus. I'm NOT saying don't go to the doctor or don't go get tested or don't take medicine. Do those things. I AM saying go to Jesus! Mary and Martha send straight away for their friend Jesus (John 11:3) who they believe can heal their brother (John 11:21,32). Is it your instinct to go to the One you know loves you and is able to help you? His response may not be what you want (it wasn't the response Mary and Martha wanted!), but it will always be what is good for you. Go to him!
2. Don't be surprised. Jesus loved Lazarus (John 11:3,5). Lazarus was a friend of Jesus (John 11:11). It seems Jesus had a close relationship with this family. And yet Lazarus got sick and died. If he got sick, anyone can. If you believe a close relationship with the Savior exempts you from suffering, that will crush you when you're sick, not help you! You can take the health, wealth, and prosperity non-gospel and flush it.
3. Rejoice. Jesus was glad (rejoiced) that he wasn't there to heal Lazarus before he died (John 11:14-15). What he’s going to do for Lazarus is going to be even more faith-building than if he had been there to heal him. You might say that it's easy for Jesus who knows what's coming and harder for us because we don't know what's coming. True enough, but we do know Jesus who has what's coming in his hands.  And in some ways, we do know what's coming. See #7 below. (This is in no way a denial of the rightness of mourning in the midst of suffering...see Mary, Martha, and Jesus in the subsequent verses.)
4. Ask how it might glorify God. Jesus knew the resurrection of Lazarus would glorify God (John 11:4). We won't always know exactly how our sickness or the sickness of a loved one will bring glory to God, but let's be looking for how. He might get glory through a miraculous healing. Glory might come to him through his long-enduring, never-failing grace on display through a long trial. Because of his grace, your patient, faith-filled, enduring response to sickness might honor him as you encourage others around you. Your sickness and response might even be used to draw a lost person to Christ.
5. Ask how it might strengthen the faith of others. Jesus did what he did so his disciples (and others) might believe (John 11:14-15). He wants their faith to grow through the suffering of Lazarus and his response to it. Do you ever look for how your suffering might strengthen the faith of others? We are really good at loving and looking out for ourselves, especially when we're sick. But the glory of God (see # 4 above) and the good of our neighbor should drive our behavior. Your response to suffering might be just the faith-bolstering thing your brothers and sisters in Christ need.
6. Rest in Jesus' wisdom. Carefully read John 11:5-6. Did you catch that? He loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus SO, THEREFORE, when he heard Lazarus was sick he stayed where he was two more days. He loved them, so he DID NOT come right away and heal him. And in our human wisdom, we say, "What?! That makes ZERO sense." And that is why we must rest in the wisdom of Jesus, not our own. Our wisdom calls for immediate relief. Jesus in his wisdom may delay. It may not make sense to you, but Jesus might delay BECAUSE he loves you. Surely it didn’t make sense to his disciples in that moment. But there’s something coming that will be glorious. God will be honored. These saints will be strengthened in their faith. Others will come to faith (John 11:45). There’s going to be a testimony for all time (still today!) of the power of the Savior, that he is the resurrection and the life. Jesus’ delay was an expression of love even though they couldn’t see it right then. Rest in his wisdom. Jesus loves you, therefore, so he’s doing this in your life.
7. Remember that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Everything we've said above means nothing if Jesus is not the resurrection and the life. It means nothing if Jesus himself didn’t rise from the dead. But he is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25) and he did rise from the dead (John 20:1-10). The resurrection of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:38-44) and Jesus' own resurrection demonstrated his power over the grave. That means there is sense to be made of our suffering. Even if our suffering ends in death (and eventually it will), our story doesn't end. It’s just beginning, and we will live forever with him (John 11:25-26). We have hope in our suffering because of Jesus, the resurrection and the life. If he’s in the grave, this post is complete garbage; there’s no good in our suffering. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead and that means we will be too.

Earlier today I posted on facebook and tweeted this: "Let's give grace today, friends." I want to unpack that a bit.

1. What do I mean by giving grace?
   1. I mean being kind to, patient with, forgiving of, and assuming the best of those all around us. I mean demonstrating what Colossians 3:12-14 talks about. "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." (Or see Ephesians 4:1-3.)
   2. But they don't deserve it! That's why it's called grace.
2. Why give grace?
   1. We have been shown grace upon grace. We who have been forgiven much should be quick to forgive those who wrong us.
   2. And often, we've not actually been wronged. We just perceive we've been wronged because we've assumed the worst of someone. So: 1 Corinthians 13:7 "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." If we're hoping all things, we'll be much more likely to not take offense and to give grace.
   3. It is the giving of grace that promotes unity and not division. Both the Colossians and Ephesians passages above make this point. And could we ever use some unity today.
3. To whom should we show grace? Here are 10 suggestions flowing out of our experiences recently. There are others, of course. But I hope these will move us to think of our daily interactions and whether they are grace-giving. I'll tuck a reason or two in parentheses why we might hope the best regarding them and so give them grace.
   1. Give grace to that person at the store who's not wearing a mask. (Maybe they have a condition which makes a mask inadvisable or dangerous.)
   2. Give grace to your children who are getting on your very last nerve. (They're kids. And these days are hard for them too.)
   3. Give grace to the person who seems afraid of you or mad at you because you're not wearing a mask. (Maybe they have a condition which would make contracting Covid-19 especially dangerous for them.)
   4. Give grace to your spouse who didn't quite hit the mark today. (They may have had a hard day at work dealing with lots of new regulations and expectations. It might have been rough time at home with the kids or a husband working from home!)
   5. Give grace to the superintendent of your school district making decisions. (They have been given an impossible set of circumstances. The federal, state, and local guideline are probably conflicting. And there are myriads of parent, faculty, staff, and student opinions on what they should do. Whatever decision they make, someone, is not going to like it.)
   6. Give grace to your governor, mayor, president, US or state senator or representative, etc. (They are under enormous pressure to do what is best for thousands and millions of people and have to do it with incomplete data and conflicting interpretations of that data being fed to them. Like your local school officials, whatever they decide will be met with scorn and criticism from one side or the other or all sides.)
   7. Give grace to your frazzled check out clerk, store worker, server at the restaurant, etc. (They are working under previously unknown guidelines that are hard to remember and implement while still providing the same level of service in an environment that was stressful without a pandemic.)
   8. Give grace to your friends and acquaintances in real life and online who disagree with you. (Again, we're all working with incomplete data with varying interpretations. Someone reaching a different conclusion than you doesn't make them the enemy or evil or malicious.)
   9. Give grace to your pastor whose sermon may not have been quite as scintillating as usual. (He may not have thousands or millions of people to think about, but he is trying to do what's best for your congregation of whatever size, and that's taking extra time and work these days.) 
   10. Give grace to your child's teacher. (They're trying to figure out how to provide the best possible in-person instruction during a pandemic while following the guidelines for their district, planning for the possibility of more remote learning, trying to do a hybrid of in-person and remote learning, all while being concerned for their and their family's health as well.)
4. What are some practical ways to give grace?
   1. Meet the reflex to criticize someone with prayer for them instead. Put yourself in their shoes, hope the best, and pray for them with compassion.
   2. A smile (they can see it in your eyes), goes a long way.
   3. A kind, encouraging word instead of a grumpy complaint.
   4. Disagree with with gentleness and love instead of harshness, smugness, superiority, and condescension.
   5. When you're sinned against, forgive. When you sin against someone, repent and pray for the humility to seek their forgiveness and acknowledge the hurt you caused.
   6. (Gently) remind ME of these things when you see me not giving grace. Again.