Scripture
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
PHILIPPIANS 2:3-4
Quotes/Color
“A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”
C.S. Lewis
“There is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself… for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Our problems still remain the same,
A fact you’ve heard me oft proclaim,
We first must think just of the team,
And sacrifice the selfish dream;
But know that if the team does well,
In every way each must excel,
It matters not who is to blame,
Each one must truly play the game.”
John Wooden
Context
I remember the first time I ever made a really good joke as a kid. One that I was really proud of. Unfortunately… The first time I ever made a really good joke as a kid perfectly coincided with the first time it became very apparent that I also am a very terrible terrible person.
I was in first grade. Spring Valley Elementary School. Mrs. Ridelhuber’s class.
The activity for the day was intended to be encouraging. You will soon find out that it was not in fact encouraging.
Each student in the class was given a sheet of paper with their name in the center of it in large font. Just a big “Bryan” or “Madison” or “Jeffery” right in the middle and blank space all around it. And the assignment when we got this paper was this: To entirely fill that blank space with words that we felt described ourselves.
Sweet right?
Our teacher encouraged us, “If you are good at basketball, you should put down ‘athletic.’ If you are an upbeat person, you should put ‘happy.’ This whole paper should be full of words you think describe you in a positive way! Fill up the whole thing!”
And with that, she allowed us to start writing down words that we felt described us.
Now keep in mind this is first grade… So there are only so many adjectives you can work with here. So we all wrote down our first instincts, which was about 5 words, started to run out of ideas, and quickly began to try to think of more words to fill the vast blank space on our page. We only knew so much.
And that’s when the sweet girl next to me innocently raised her hand. (She was very sweet and did not deserve what was about to get thrown her way.) Trying to do her best to do the assignment well and come up with another word or two that described her so that she could fill up her sweet little page she asked…
“How do you spell ‘intelligent?’”
Which I felt was an interesting question given the circumstances… And as a 6-year old felt was a great opportunity for some irony. So I quickly responded…
“I think you should choose a different word.”
Zing.
Hilarious? Confirmed. Terrible person? Also, even more so, confirmed.
(I would like to sincerely apologize to whoever this poor sweet girl was. All I can say is… I was 6.)
Application
From what I can tell from knowing myself and observing other people… I am convinced that every person struggles with one of these two things in life…
- Person 1 – You struggle deeply with comparing yourself to others. You see what other people do. What other people have. What other people say. How other people live… and you think to yourself… “I think I want that.” Or,
- Person 2 – You struggle deeply with looking at others. What they do. What they have. What they say. And how they live… and you think to yourself… “They are dumb.”
Neither one is great… And I give the Person 2 example with the intention of that being funny… But that being said, I am not person 1. I am naturally person 2. (So, I am a jerk. And I have to challenge myself not to be a big fat jerk.)
The problem with this is that looking down on others (ie, being highly critical of others) is completely incompatible with being a follower of Christ.
Looking Down on Others and Looking Towards God is Completely Incompatible
I love the image C.S. Lewis uses in the quote above of looking down on others as God is watching from heaven. It’s one or the other. Never both.
The keys to humility are:
-
- Committing to not look down on others – Why would you be able to look down on someone else as insignificant when they are considered God’s workmanship?
- Committing to looking up to God – God is holy and worthy of our praise. He is so high above, if our eyes are on him, they should never have the chance to look down on others.
Humility is knowing with such confidence that God is good and so far above us all, that there is no sense in looking down on others. Not only is it right and good to not look down on others, it is also true. We are all sheep under the Good Shepherd.
Looking down on others and being critical of others is senseless and a poor representation of followers of Christ. If you are like me, make your focus on God above. And everything and everyone else will fall in their proper place after that.
Something to Chew On:
- Do you tend to look down on others more? Or yourself? How do either of these take your focus away from focusing your eyes on God?
- Where do you see pride/lack of humility in your life? In what relationships? In what involvement? Can you see how it is damaging to that environment?
- How can you prioritize fixing your gaze upward on God above, instead of others you may look down on?
- How do you spell “intelligent”?
GreatValue Proverb:
You can’t look down on others and look up at God.