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Exaltation and

 Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever exalts himself shall be exalted. (Matthew 23:12)

Today’s verse is thanks to C.E. White, who considers it today in The Mirror of the Word. It’s a new devotional and I don’t want to step on her toes, but since I can’t get to the internet at the moment to find something to write about, and this verse has sparked an idea or two, I’m absconding with it, starting with some of what Dallas Willard has taught.

Professor Willard defines a kingdom as the range of one’s effective will. We pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, meaning that God’s kingdom includes both heaven and earth. By extension, that should mean all of us. The king of England, on the other hand, has a much smaller range. He can command only the British Empire and is legally limited about that command. The range of the effective will of the president of the United States was always supposed to be lower than a king’s, with the Constitution, the Legislature, the Supreme Court, and the citizens checking and balancing his power.

Your power is much more restricted, but when it comes down to it, you would have the right to throw the king of England or the president of the United States off property you own, especially if that property is in the United States. At the same time, it’s likely you can’t get the other household members to do their chores. Kingdoms are tricky things in that way. They’re also tricky because as the ruler of your kingdom/queendom, you can grant others rights or allow them to make decisions even if those rights and decisions limit yours. To give a minor example, I have often told passengers in my car that they have control of the heater & air conditioner. They can make themselves comfortable even if it makes me uncomfortable. Fortunately, my current car can split its function so that we can both be comfortable or less uncomfortable. But, my passenger gets to be a king/queen within my queendom, potentially overruling me in the area I’ve granted that they may.

God is like this. He can and does grant different individuals and groups different levels of rulership within His kingdom, even to the point where that dominion violates His. This isn’t absolute. If we abuse our rights, if the circumstances require, or if He chooses for some other reason, He can rescind that privilege and authority, just as you can within your realm.

The problem is that your realm and my realm may overlap. You want to watch something I hate. I may want to clutter the table for the next two months to work on a project (that only takes two weeks, but the extra six weeks are needed before I clean up.) I could be overwhelmed and want you to take on or help with 9 of my tasks while you have your other tasks and have time (perhaps) for two, but only if I help you with three.

So, returning to the issues of exaltation and humility. We tend to see exaltation as anything that makes us feel like someone thinks he/she is better than we are. We tend to see humility as believing they are no better than we think or worse. My question of the day is to what extent humility and exaltedness are a matter of boundaries. We're exalting ourselves if we expand our boundaries into someone else’s kingdom. If one owns something, it is not exalting oneself to act as the owner. If we allow others to expand into my kingdom in a way that doesn’t harm us (or anyone else), we are humble. I need to think about this more.

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