Obedience through Humility

OBEDIENCE THROUGH HUMILITY

These words remind me of teaching my own children the lesson of obedience. On the way to the punishment room (time out) they became very humble, begging for forgiveness and making promises for repentance with tears streaming down their face. It was quite a scene. Usually the drama did not match the offense and frequently I had to hide my face to keep from laughing. The scene last night as we gathered to receive our ashes in penance was a bit different, though a few tears did flow.

 As folks knelt at the altar while  Pastors Phil and Kyle placed ashes on our foreheads last night, we were reminded of the sacrifice Jesus would make on our behalf. Are we deserving of it. Indeed not? The son of the God of the universe, of all there is to have and to own, would sacrifice his life for ours.?That's absurd. What have I done to deserve this? Tell me, please. They say I just have to accept his love for me.

A humbling experience. You bet. Kneeling at the cross and having ashes placed on our foreheads was humbling indeed. But being reminded that I "came from dust and to dust I shall return" definitely reminded me of how fleeting our humanity and all we accomplish is. It doesn't help to puff ourselves up or think too highly of ourselves when we consider ourselves nothing but a pile of dust.

Ash Wednesday and Lent seem to me to be lessons in humility. Giving up something we love to focus on the Lord and being humble is a way of obeying Jesus' message. I love these verses from Philippians that remind us of the importance of humility in all of our relationships, especially our relationship with the Lord.

"In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!" Philippians 2:5-8

"HE HUMBLED HIMSELF BY BECOMING OBEDIENT TO DEATH--EVEN DEATH UPON THE CROSS." Phil1:8