Humility or Humiliation…The Choice is Mine
Humility or Humiliation…The Choice is Mine
At 65, if there was only ONE piece of advice I could give to young men, it would be…Humble Yourself (or God will do it for you).
I wish I could say I’m a product of following that advice…given to me 40 years ago…
…but sadly I’m not.
Long ago, I came home from work angry at the world, at the path I found myself on, and most of all…at God. As I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling, my heart pounding with frustration, I noticed the vase on the headboard mantle. It was full of dried white baby’s breath flowers. But I noticed, in particular, ONE flower was moving. None of the others! Why? I began to lay perfectly still, crossed my arms, and held my breath. Then I saw it again, and realized, as I felt my heartbeat under my folded arms…this single little flower was moving in rhythm to my heart.
But why this one and not all of them?
Keeping my eye on this ONE flower, I got up to look at it closer, and realized its stem was broken, and the flower was barely hanging on. This single flower, being so far detached from my heart, (my heart within my body, laying on a bed, attached to a headboard, a vase sitting on the mantle, with hundreds of dried little flowers in it…), was moving in perfect rhythm to my heartbeat!
Then I heard His Voice within me say, “You think that I’m so far away from you, and you’re right. As far as the heavens are from the earth, are My Ways from man’s. But if you would be broken, as this flower is…you too, would move to the beat of My Heart.”
My world began breaking within me, crumbling ALL my reasoning that justified my anger. Tears poured, uncontrollably down my cheeks, because I couldn’t deny the truth I saw and heard.
But most of all…was that He cared enough to come down and show this to me.
So….did I live a life of Humility, from then till now, after witnessing such a profound lesson?
Sadly, No. I’ve lived years experiencing Humiliation. So here lies my advice: Humbling Oneself, Being Broken, is a moment by moment, step by step process that takes CONSTANT reminding…that on my own (without Him)…I can do Nothing.
Trust me on this.
Psalm 51:17