"All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:5b-7
I guess there is a reason that pride has been around from before the creation of humanity - it just never seems to go away. At just about every turn in my life personally, there it is - in all its ugliness - staring me down and singing the siren's song that says acts born in pride will be satisfying. They aren't - at least, not in the long run. Sure, you will get applause in the now. But, at the end of the day when the applause tapers, the true follower of Christ knows something that all of the hand clappers don't - that the thing for which they were applauding was driven by a sense of "me" rather than a sense of "Him."
I hope that I am honest enough to admit that it happens to me. It does. More than I care to cop to. It is an ongoing battle that every follower of Christ must wage, and is at the core of most of our decision making. Is it going to be about me or is it going to be about Christ? It's a no-brainer to answer - but it seems it takes 45 brains, hearts and legs to actually get it done.
Humility, in it's pure form (not the distorted false humility which is nothing short of a parody of the reality), is a powerful weapon for good and for God. It keeps us close to Christ (speaking pragmatically). It allows us to have a perspective of life and self that is based in reality and is healthy. And it keeps us from getting smacked in the head.
The phrase "God opposes the proud" is filled with pictures. The one that most comes to my mind is that of the "stiff arm" in football (ladies or non-football watchers: this means that someone with the ball sticks their arm out straight [stiff], placed squarely on the opponent's face, to fend off the defensive player coming to tackle them). That is the idea of this phrase. If you walk in pride, God keeps you at arm's length. Humility is the door through which we gain our relational access to God (again, speaking pragmatically).
Though it seems tough to hear that God will stiff-arm us at times, it is a gracious stiff-arm. In the passage above, Peter makes it clear that God cares for us - He is not looking to necessarily scar our foreheads with His knuckled imprint. This, in itself, was humbling for me.
Just this morning I was sensing God correcting my heart for a number of things that had to do with pride. They weren't obvious, they were simply known to me and God. But all the while He was correcting me, I was thinking about how I deal with people when they have made a mistake. I was thinking that I am pretty gracious and loving - and for the most part I think that may be relatively accurate. And then I was actually stupid enough to think that I wish I were dealing with me and my heart errors rather than God. For a moment, I actually imagined that I might be more gracious than God to myself.
About then, God reminded me that there is nobody more gracious and loving than He. Not me. Not anybody. And, to state it again, most surely not me. When he corrects us, it is in love and grace and truth. Does it cut? Yep. Does it sting? Yes. But is right and good and holy? Absolutely.
Had I humbled myself before I got to that point, maybe I would not have had to been corrected. But I am glad I was. I needed it, and God did it masterfully, graciously, and lovingly - without ever yieding truth and righteousness. I hope I do the same the next time around, and that I realize that walking in humility is better than being humbled.
