Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:10)
“I’m a Worm!”
“I’m a piece of filth!”
These are the sorts of statements we tend to associate with
humbleness. I’m nobody, useless, helpless, worthless… In comparison with God,
all of those are true. But have you stopped to consider how important worms are
to the environment? They dig burrows, which allow air and water into the soil
and to the roots of plants. They eat their body weight in waste every day, and
their castings (excrement, poop) is among the best fertilizer available. And they
provide food for other critters. The
humble worm is more valuable than we tend to give it credit for.
C.S. Lewis described being humble not as thinking less of
ourselves, but of thinking of ourselves less. That’s hard to do when you’re trying
to figure out how to take care of yourself better unless you think of yourself
as you would think of anyone else you want to take better care of. Who you are
taking better care of isn’t the key. Taking better care is.
There is also the idea taught by flight attendants and
emergency responder trainers. You put on
your air mask before you help your kids with theirs. You don’t rush into a gun battle to save
someone’s life. You can’t take care of someone else well if you don’t take care
of yourself first. Somehow, I don’t think worms spend a lot of time worrying
about their reputations. They’re too busy doing the important things that they
do. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to be a worm.
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