Still Ministries

Humility and Grasping and Clinging
May 29-26

John 7:1-10
After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.
10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret.

I want to close my writings on humility with this temptation Jesus had from his own brothers to prove himself – to go big or go home. They scorned his way of working in secret as much as he could. He wouldn’t bite.

Think of it, his own brothers. He grew up with them. How hard that must have been for them. They could not believe that he was a prophet, let alone the Messiah. What made him better than they? They mocked his ways because they didn’t believe in him. They did not understand the kingdom way of humility. I wonder if it was harder for Jesus to take this challenge from his own brothers? What pain did it cost him and the human need he would have felt to belong?

He stayed the course. He waited until the brothers headed off and he went in secret to the festival.

The humility that we have pondered this year is costly, isn’t it? Yes, it is beautiful, it is freeing and many other things. But it is costly. In the face of misunderstanding, judgment, rejection, we choose humility, the way of Jesus. We commit, time and again, that it is the way, and we turn from all the grasping and clinging to explain ourselves, prove ourselves, fit in, etc.

It’s worth it though. I really think it is worth it. And I think that someday we will see even more just how worth it, it is.

This week I am sharing a bit more personally so I won't be posting on Facebook - only on my blog that goes out to those who are signed up. If you would like to have my writings sent to your email box each morning, go to my website and follow the instructions to sign up!
https://www.stillministries.net/

I'll write on Facebook again next week to finish the nine-month journey on humility.

Still Ministries Welcome to Still Ministries. In addition to providing one on one spiritual direction and supervision for spiritual directors, Debbie offers a variety of contemplative spaces for your soul.

HUMILITY AND LEADERSHIP
Day Two

Foster points to John Milton and his famous sonnet, “When I Consider How My Light is Spent.” Sometimes it is titled, “On His Blindness.” Milton is struggling with his personal tragedy of his coming blindness. And not only his blindness but human tragedies of every sort. He wrestles with these fragilities and wonders how we can serve God with such limiting capacities.
In the sonnet, he answers his own wrestling’s, breaking through to such gold,

That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.”

God does not need our work or our gifts – not really. How we truly serve him best is to bear Christ’s mild yoke, to stand and wait upon Him and only go when he calls…because so much else is just us trying to get somewhere within ourselves that isn’t where we really need to go.

I think about being a leader – what is the highest thing to model or to point to? All kinds of impressive works or programs or achievements? No…oh to see it clearly so late in life…to bear the humble yoke of Christ and ever wait on him.