"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." -
Micah 6:8
Please forgive me, but I can't remember what stories I have or have not shared with all of you. I tell you that for two reasons:
1) I want to be humble, like God tells us in today's verse, and
2) I want you to have mercy on me, like God tells us in today's verse, in case I repeat a story.
Anyhows, y'ever eaten "Humble Pie"? Dutn't taste too good goin' down. But shur is good fer da soul.
I never thought that I thought too highly of myself, but I learned with Humble Pie that you better not think so highly of how humbly you feel about yourself. You know it's kind of like saying, "I'm proud of how humble I am."
Ok, ok, the story about Humble Pie. Well, I was at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes National Conference in Black Mountain, NC. I know I told you about coming back from it and being high as a kite for Jesus, but I don't think I told you what happened there.
The speaker, one night, told us all that if we really wanted to taste (get it? "taste") the depth of Jesus' love, then we needed to eat some Humble Pie. He said we needed to go up to someone who was hard to love and tell 'em that we loved 'em.
Well, he finished talkin', and I started thinkin' real hard about some people in my life, when, lo and behold, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around, and there was this guy from my high school. And this guy, well, let's just say he didn't run with the most popular crowd. It's not
that I really did either, run with the popular crowd, that is, but I sure as the world knew that I was more popular than him, and I was smarter than him, and I was a better athlete than him, and I was better at...well, you get the point.
And you probably have guessed, by now, where this is goin'.
It's like I said at the outset; I never thought that I thought too highly of myself, but I learned with Humble Pie that you better not think so highly of how humbly you feel about yourself.
And boy did I get a big ol' helpin' of that thar Humble Pie when the boy that I was more popular than, smarter than, more athletic than, well, he looked me in the eye, smiled as if he was about to say somethin' nice to somebody who's hard to love, just like the speaker challenged us.
And he did.
Just like the speaker challenged us, he said, "Chris, I love ya' man." And he didn't say it like, ya know, "Oooooh, you're so greaaaaaat, and I admire you so muuuuuch because you're more popular than me, and smarter than me, and more athletic than me, and I just think you hung the moon."
Nope, he said it like, "Man, you're hard to love."
Ditn't taste too good goin' down. But shur was good fer da soul.
As you can tell, I will never forget my friend, who ironically had initials J.C., just like the most highly exalted one, Jesus Christ, who humbled me by pointing out my sin and then lifted me back up higher than I was by loving me up on his cross.
Let us not think too highly of ourselves. For we know that "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." - Micah 6:8
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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