Humble Yourselves

             Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:10)

 

So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” (Exodus 15:24)

 

There was an incident in my past in which I’m told that was so angry and so hurt that I swung at my rents, and it wasn’t just a toddler’s temper tantrum. It stuck with me even though I didn’t remember it. I’m not sharing this for pity or even so you understand me. I’m sharing it because it’s what we tend to do with God and others in one form or another. At some point, in our minds, it comes down to “God or me,” and it doesn’t seem as though God chose “me.”

Now, God chose me and you when He created us. He chose us when Jesus came and died for us. I get that. But we’re like the Israelites three days after crossing the Red Sea (above.) If you read the chapter, it never mentions the people asking for water and being denied. They were tired and thirsty, and God didn’t make everything wonderful before they’d arrived, so they grumbled. Not long after, they swung at God and kept swinging whenever things weren’t as they pleased.

“We aren’t toddlers.”

No, we aren’t, at least not in our own eyes.

 “We’re adults.”

Yes, we are, at least biologically.

“We would understand if God explained it.”  

Well, we might but that doesn’t mean we’ll approve.

“We deserve to have a say.”

Yes, we do, but that doesn’t mean we must be given our way, that our way is the best way, and that there aren’t proper and improper ways to go about it. What would we think of an adult whose means of expressing disapproval is to punch people? Or organizing a protest? Every time?

Humbleness is (probably) more than not attacking and not insisting that things be the way we want them, but it is not less than that.