Humble Yourself

After going through my recent foot surgery and hospitalization, an old praise song from the 1970s started going through my head. The song*, based on James 4:10, begins with the words:

“Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord . . .”

The song’s message seems appropriate for a number of reasons, all centered on how my recent hospital experience has humbled me.

1. I was humbled by the nature of hospital life. It began with what they euphemistically call “a hospital gown.” As far as I can tell, they must have bought them at a half-off sale,  because they were, well, half off. The backs were missing, as were the supposed ties to hold my gown together. As a result, my backside was visible to all who unfortunately looked in my direction. Not that I was embarrassed, but I’m sure the staff ran to eyewash stations after every visit to my room. Add to that the times the staff would come  in while I was using my bedside “jug,” and you get the idea.  The ultimate was when they had to shave a hitherto unshaved area of my body for my angiogram. I gave up my last shred of privacy, and pride, as the trimmer went to work. Hospital stays are humbling because there is no privacy whatsoever. You are at your worst, and the least presentable possible. Any illusion of pride gets carried out in the first bed pan.

2. I was humbled by losing control of the situation. Normally, we control what happens to us. We decide on something, act on it,  arrange our surroundings to please us,  dress as we wish, eat what we wish, and go where we want. We are in charge of our lives (right?). Although I kept control of how I reacted to what was happening, I lost control of everything else that was happening to me. I was told where to go, what to wear, what to eat, when to wake up (every two hours for blood work or shots), what was done to my foot, what medicines to take, when I could go home, etc. I was totally dependent on a team of other people who made decisions for me. I depended on them to know and do what was best for me, and depended on them to tell me what I now need to do to heal. Considering what can happen to any of us at any time, I was reminded that our idea that we control our own lives is an illusion. Things happen to us that we do not control; we do the best we can to manage what is in our control, but we cannot boast in our health, prosperity, or life situation. Ultimately, God is the one who is sovereign over our lives. He brings down and lifts up; he heals and sets the number of our days, and he redeems us beyond any ability of ours to add or subtract. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:27, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” It is humbling to give up control to other people, and humbling, but proper, to relinquish control to God.

3. I was humbled by the change in roles. As a pastor, I was the one visiting people in the hospital, hearing about their illnesses, praying with them, and hopefully giving them comfort and encouragement. I was the hero, the rescuer, who rode in on my mighty steed (sometimes my wheelchair) to bring them the Church’s loving concern and God’s blessings. Though I truly cared for each person, I felt good to walk in as their pastor, usually in my collar, doing the work that God had called me to do. Then, after each visit, I could leave and go back home. But now, things were different. Now, I was the one in the hospital bed undergoing surgery. I was the one suffering a physical ailment, lying there, hoping to heal. Only now, there were no visitors allowed, even Karen or my pastors. I lay there, understanding better how many of our members had felt over the years, feeling fear for their health and hoping someone would come to visit them. Over the years, I  should have done more.

Though humility is not our desired condition, nor natural for us human beings, humility – the condition of being humble – pleases God. Scripture is full of passages teaching that we should be humble before God and toward our fellow human beings.

Toward God:

1. 1. 1. As above: James 4: 10, “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord . . .”
      2. In Daniel 10:12, an angel who appears to Daniel  says to him, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.”
      3. In 2 Kings 22:19 and 2 Chronicles 34:27, God hears the king of Judah’s prayers because “your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord.”
      4. Proverbs 16:18 warns, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
      5. “For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.” (Psalm 138:6).
      6. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).
      7. Psalm 147:6 says, “The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.”
      8. In Isaiah 66:2,God proclaims, “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

Toward each other:

1. 1. 1. Jesus told a parable that we should not seek places of prestige over others, but approach them humbly: “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:8-11).
      2. Paul wrote in Philippians 2:3, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
      3. 1 Peter 5:5 says, “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'”

Humility before God and each other is only right, because the greatest and most exalted person of all eternity, the One whose Name is now exalted above every name, humbled himself by coming into the world as one of us, to die on a cross and save us from our sins (Philippians 2:5-8). So how can we be prideful? Who are we compared to him? What have we done, compared to him? What teachings should we follow regarding our attitude except those in God’s Word?

Humility is right, and it shouldn’t take a stay in the hospital or half of a hospital gown to check our pride and bring us back into line with what God desires. And when we do humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, James 4:10 concludes with the promise found in the rest of that 70’s song: “and he will lift you higher and higher.”

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read:  Philippians 2:3-11; James 4:6-9; Matthew 8:4; Matthew 23:12.

*Humble Thyself in the Sight of the Lord, (c) 1978 CCCM Music (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.).