Haughty Humility

"That person is a hot mess. At least I'm not as bad as that person."

"I'll never amount to anything.  I'm destined to fail."

I'm sure you've made at least one of those statement--even if only in your head.  Amiright?

Our society is ripe with comparisons.  Social media and a celebrity-worshipping culture have only made that worse.

And if you're like me, and I suspect, a lot of Christians, than you probably manage to simultaneously exude a haughty elitism and a humility grounded not in truth but in the lies of the enemy.

Let me explain.

So many people are convinced that life is about being good.  Good people get rewarded via karma.  Only good people can get into heaven.  Even Christians talk about doing good and being a good person as though it determines our eternal destination.

If you are a true follower of Christ, you know that is not the case.  It is not possible to earn your salvation through goodness.  Salvation is found only in Christ's redemptive work on the cross and through a contrite heart that embraces that sacrifice.

But there is something that wars against our understanding of this.  There is a voice that condemns our worth because of our actions.  And yet, as human beings, we know that our value is not ascribed.  It is intrinsic. In other words, your value and dignity are not something you have to earn.  You are born with your value and dignity.  You matter regardless of what you can do or the choices that you make.

We should be mindful of our actions and choices.  We should feel badly when we fall short in our life.  But we need to use our failures as a GPS to lead us straight to the healing power of Jesus.  His desire is our restoration and illumination.  Jesus wants us to learn from our mistakes, not be condemned by them.  He wants to take our broken vessels and restore them so that we become a beacon of light that points the way for others.

If we don't get that, we lose.  And so does the world.  If we allow our failures to condemn us into a falsely-grounded humility and despair, we will fall into complacency and our sins will magnify.  

On the other end of the spectrum, however, we need to be sure to compare ourselves to God' standard and not other people.  Sometimes it is easy to get haughty by looking upon the failures and sins of others and deciding that we are better than those people.  It can numb our awareness of our own sin and failures.  A sense of superiority flies in the face of everything Jesus did here on earth.  He was the walking personification of grace.  He never abandoned sharing truth with people about their sins and failures, but He always treated them with grace.  Except the religious leaders.  He kinda just freaked out and called them vipers.

Why is that?  Because following Jesus is about the heart.  He wants RELATIONSHIP.  He wants you to understand the TRUTH of your condition and your need for HIM.  He wants you to also extend that same grace that was extended to you to the unworthy masses around you.  In Matthew 7, Jesus cautions:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Stop judging, Judgey McJudgey Pants.  That's how that passage is usually interpreted by well-meaning hipsters.  That's not exactly the whole point, though.  Jesus is simply cautioning against the hardening of the heart that comes with seeing yourself as MORE worthy of forgiveness and grace than others.  The admonition is not instructing you to keep the truth to yourself when you see someone sinning, but rather a reminder that you were extended grace that you didn't earn and that you should also wrap your truth-burgers for others in a cushiony roll of grace as well.

Again, this comes down to IDENTITY.  A subtle change in your alignment can harden your heart or decimate it.  A subtle shift in your view can strangle the hope out of your life or stop up the passage to compassion that God wants you to share with a world in need.

Let's truly see the world--and ourselves--through the intact lens of GRACE and TRUTH.

Protective Hulk Smash Dad: A Lesson In Trusting Our Heavenly Father

My Daddy Hulk-Smash was imperfect, but God is not...

Recently, our 8 year old son came to us and admitted that he was having a hard time at school because some kids were being mean to him.  These kids were doing their best Amish impressions and shunning him during recess.  His little heart was broken.  As he cried about how hurt he was about their rejection, our parent hearts broke.

This was especially difficult because of our 3 kids, young Jack is the friendliest and most adventure-prone of our kids.  His raw courage and complete lack of fear in virtually every aspect of life is remarkable to me.  As a kid who grew up in the grip of fear, it's been exciting watching Jackson embrace adventure!  While I often opted not to do things and embrace the safety of my couch as a child, Jackson is always ready to pounce on something new and adventurous.  On this night, however, he was a broken-hearted boy crying over his "terrible life" because of this rejection.  We hugged him, prayed with him and attempted to say the right things to him to make this better.

But somewhere deep inside me, a seething papa bear rage began to rise up.

A big of a HULK SMASH, if you will.

Suddenly, I fancied myself a massive green character in the Marvel Universe willing to smash and destroy anyone and anything that would dare hurt my boy.  I know what you are thinking, "this is a guy who works in children's ministry and he's blogging about attacking a bunch of 2nd graders?"

Yes.  Yes I am.  Of course, I wouldn't attack 2nd graders, but the desire to protect my son rose up within me with an unbridled passion.  I really didn't know what to do, but I felt such a protective urge to save my son at that moment.

Lately, God has been impressing on me the importance of trusting Him as a good Father.  We always talk about how God can protect us and God cares about us and how God is good.  We don't always walk that out.  Sometimes it is easier to believe that God is good from the sidelines, rather than in the excitement of the game.  Consider Jesus' teaching in Matthew 7:9-11:

"Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

We've all read or heard that passage a million times.  You're probably reading this right now quipping sarcastically, "okay, Bill, are you going to cite John 3:16 too?  I already know this."

As misguided as my HULK SMASH rage in defense of my son was, it was rooted in this same Fatherly passion to protect his own that dominates the scripture.  We are SONS AND DAUGHTERS of God, He constantly reminds us through the Bible that as our FATHER, in all things HE works things out for our good.  He promises to never leave us nor forsake us. His fatherly love for us is perfect.  It is the perfection of fatherhood that we will never see in earthly fathers.  When we well up with passion to protect our kids, sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail.  When HE wells up with perfect passion to protect our kids, he conquers sin and death and opens a path to freedom.

As imperfect children here on earth, we will never fully understand the magnitude of His fatherly awesomeness.  And that's okay.  We can just rest in knowing that He is bigger than anything we will face and He is dying to provide for us in the way that only a perfect Father can.