Fame Isn't Humbling

 My last few posts have been related to something I preached the morning before the post.  This one is only kind of related but if you've been missing watching our services (or, dare I think it, me preaching) you can find yesterday's celebration here.  This post is about humility which you may wonder if I know anything about.

I hear it a lot in athletes who have recently broken records or who have joined some group of amazing older athletes by doing "x."  It seems that one of the rehearsed lines is that such an honor or to be mentioned with such a group of athletes is "humbling."  It always sounds a little odd.  To be fair, I have no idea what I would say in such setting.  I am in no danger of being included in any list of prestigious athletes.  I'm not sure what kind of records are kept for preaching but I'm not likely to make those lists either.  As I have given it some thought, though, honors and those lists are not humbling.  They are the opposite.  They are a direct temptation to think of yourself as "all that and a bag of chips."  The lists and honors are, in fact, other people saying you are better than almost everyone else at the thing you do.  How is that humbling?

In fact, the athletes and anyone else in similar situation are leaving out a step.  I don't think they're being insincere.  I think the humility comes from hearing your name in a list of those you consider to be great while also being aware of your own limitations and failures.  "How could I be one of them, I'm just a kid from _____."  Maybe they just don't know what else to say but I think this is the humbling part.  We all have those we think of as being great.  We think of them as being fundamentally different than someone like me.  When your name gets mentioned along with theirs you have two options: pride says this is justified while humility says this is crazy.  Pride says, "That's right, I'm one of the greats and better than all the regular folks."  Humility says, "How can it be that these people think of me as great?"

This has an application for us sub-pro athletes and the rest of "regular" humanity.  Most of us get recognition at some level.  Raises, promotions, thanks, and admiration are all forms of recognition.  Is your response one of having deserved it and it being a little overdue?  Is there a sense that there are others that are just as deserving that are not being recognized?  Do you realize that the recognizers are probably being, at least, a little generous in overlooking some flaws and limitations to praise the good and pleasant?

Let me talk to my tribe a minute.  As Christians we have two ways to look at salvation.  One says that I can't believe that Jesus would give Himself for me and choose to forgive and adopt me as His own.  The other way is to look at it as a choice I made.  Both these views are true but which one is primary?  Is my choice what should be focused on?  That leads to a path where I am saved because I made a better choice than everyone else.  If Jesus is the focus, than all I did was accept the greatest offer ever.  This is the better path.

One final note for all of us.  I've never met anyone who was prideful or humble all the time.  We all get it right and wrong.  Pride is an insidious and unrelenting temptation.  Fighting against it is a constant battle.  Oh how great the rest would be to be free from that forever . . . .