Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Trying to Be Humble


Welcome back.

So I'm having a hard time sleeping, I wake up at 2am every morning, my body still getting used to the time difference from Russia to LA. But finally today, I was able to take a nap, and now tonight with NyQuil as my aid, I hope to sleep past 4am. Pray for me. I'll be fine.

The thing about humility is that it's not permanent, it requires nothing less than the power of God in you. Being at the summer camp in Russia was a test in humility for me. To not ask for my rights, or to seek the regular rubs from doing what you do, but to seek God's pleasure in knowing you're being obedient. And then realizing you can't and so asking Him to be your strength.

That's what's so amazing about humility, you can have it at a high cost, the cost of surrender. The more I surrendered myself to the cause of the camp, to the children, to the task at hand, picking up trash, playing futbol, singing the songs the children liked, the more I felt the power of God flowing through me, and the more humility flowed.

I know what it's like to try to be humble. To work at it on your own. It will last a few hours, maybe even days if you're good. That's tiring. But at the Russia summer camp, hanging out with orphans, washing their underwear by hand, with nothing more than a bar of soap, a tub and hot water in the shower, there I met God and found the heart of the Humble King. For He gave not some, but all that He had that we may be saved. And he didn't leave a small thing to humble himself, he left divine things such as His nature, His power and His glory.

And so as I washed those dirty socks, I felt a little bit of God in me, of His Spirit, of this gift called humility. And I didn't worry about being exalted, for that's another problem I face each day, but instead, this burden was light, it was easy.

Picture: Camp shower in Russia.

Into the future,

davidT