Finding Shelter. Russell J. Levenson Jr.

9 Exodus 20:1–17.

10 Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1973), 50–51.

11 Deuteronomy 6:4–5.

12 Cf. Mark 12:30–31; Matthew 22:37–39.

Meditation 6

       Self-Sinking

      Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth.

      —Numbers 12:3

      I suppose I have read the above passage several times over the years, but not until I began this book did it really strike me. “Moses was very humble.” Leader . . . yes. Lawgiver . . . of course. Abolitionist without compare . . . certainly. But humble? It is hard to think on that image the late actor Charlton Heston gave us of Moses, standing tall before the soon-to-be-parted Red Sea and telling the Hebrews to “behold the hand of God,” and couple that with humility. Yet we are told here, he was, in fact, more humble than anyone on planet earth.

      We preacher types often decry the decay of culture with words like “there used to be a time when . . . .” It would be tempting to suggest that we live in a time when humility seems not to be prized, but shunned. I suppose that has always been the case. We tell stories about heroes’ great accomplishments. We cherish wins, trophies, and prizes. When it comes to college football games that crank up during this season of the year, at the end of the game, it is the “most valuable player” who is heralded, not the humblest one.

But you and I worship a God who turns most things on their head. For instance, a foundational character trait of Jesus’s followers was to be humble. “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted,” Jesus offers (Luke 14:11). Of course Jesus lived that humility right up to his last breath. As Paul reminds us, Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). The Apostle Peter called on the earliest Christians to “clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5:5).¹³

      Humility is an odd trait because it requires that one step away from oneself, which would suggest you or I have to in some way “try” to be humble—as if it is a contest . . . which seems to run quite upstream to humility itself! A “most humble” award would be rather ironic. How do we attain it?

      A primary step is simply to get yourself out of the way—out of the way of others, yourself—out of the way of God. Taking a step back from the front of the line will enable us to be better used by God. If my first priority is myself, then, of course, everyone and everything else comes in second and third and fourth place, and so on. If I step back from myself, then it opens the possibility that someone or something else, which has little to do with what I want, blossoms. That is particularly true if we want to be used by God to advance His presence in this world and to serve His children around us.

      Moses was a great man, but he was humble. He knew (and learned throughout life’s journey) that God’s will and way were more important than his. The end result? A nation of people was freed and given a new home away from captivity.

      The word “humility” actually comes from the Latin humilitas, a derivative of sorts from the adjective humilis, which means not only humble, but also “from the earth” or “ground.” A close relative of the word is “humus,” which is the dark organic matter we find in soil. Humus is essential to the health of other plants; in fact, the life of other plants depends on humus. Interestingly enough, however, it is composed in large part from the decay (death) of plant matter. This death of life makes way for more life.

      As we step from season to season, as summer gives way to autumn, life continues. If summer had cognitive ability, we might say that it knows its place. When it is time to yield to the fall, it humbles itself. Few are more readily identified with humility than Mother Teresa. This small nun of Calcutta could be tending to the wounds of the horrifically impoverished one day and addressing a joint session of Congress the next, yet she maintained that Christ-like quality of humility. She once said, “If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.”

      In the end, humility is not so much something one achieves, but rather simply receives by stepping aside for others. For Christians, it is for Christ to rule in our hearts. I once read that humility is not thinking less of yourself but instead thinking of yourself less.