A humble life is the gateway to a joyful life

One of my children brought in a giant stack of school papers the other day. He couldn’t be bothered to bring them in a timely manner I guess because some of them were a month old. He just kept not remembering to bring them home or so he said.

I began to skim through the stack. One particular math page with a less than stellar grade got my attention. It wasn’t even about the poor grade though it was hardly his best work. It was the note from the teacher written across the bottom that really jumped out at me.

“I gave back to follow directions, but he gave back without fixing, because he didn’t feel they were wrong,” said the teacher’s note.

I asked him about it. “I tired,” he claimed.

Yeah, I’m not buying that mister. First, I think we’re looking at a partial case of “it’s the end of the school year, and I’m all done.” Truth be told, I’ve got a case of that myself. Side note: God bless you teachers. Maybe a streak of laziness was at play. However, the more I thought about it, the more I decided the chief offense here was pride.

Good old-fashioned pride. Proverbs 16:18 (NKJV) sprang to mind, “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.” Let’s add on verse nineteen for the fun of it, “Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.”

That child does not like to be wrong. Or admit that he might be wrong. This was the real crime. He had a chance to fix his mistakes. Not only did he not fix them he refused to believe that he was wrong. He was going to die on that hill. He would rather take the bad grade than admit he misunderstood the directions and did it wrong. He thought he knew better. Pride before the fall.

We had a talk about it, and in the grand scheme this instance won’t do any real damage. He went on his merry way and as I do, I began to wonder if he has picked that behavior up from me. How much have I been guilty of being prideful? Maybe not overtly prideful but do I have a humble spirit? Have I been practicing humility? This is worth exploring. Proverbs 11:2 says with humility comes wisdom.

Friends, let me tell you something, I’ve been in a stretch the last few months since releasing a book where I’ve been on the receiving end of quite a few compliments. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate them. And some days I really need them. I bet you have days like that, too. But if I’m not careful humility will slip away, and I’ll start thinking too highly of myself.

Whatever we hear enough, we start to believe. This is a double-edged sword. We run the risk of believing Satan’s lies that would tell us we have no value, aren’t capable, or even that God doesn’t love us. But on the other side, I run the risk of believing too much of my own hype. Then I start to take credit for things I don’t deserve. I may believe that it’s me and not God that deserves credit. Any good works I’ve done or success I’ve had, isn’t just because of me. I’ve got to be on guard for a pride problem.

I’ve been leading a Bible study at church where we’re working our way through the book of Philippians. I’ve read those four powerful chapters a lot lately. The Apostle Paul has a lot to say on humility in chapter 2. He reminds us that Christ was the ultimate example of humility. God becoming a lowly servant who was obedient to the point of death.

Among the wisdom Paul, who was in prison at the time he wrote that, shared, is our joy is fulfilled when we choose to be like-minded with Christ. Friends, we must choose to be humble. We must consider others greater than ourselves. We must consider that we might be wrong. We must consider that we didn’t get where we are without help. Having a humble spirit is the goal.

Pride leads in the direction of destruction. Humility and being like-minded with Christ leads in the direction of joy. Which way are you choosing?