Humility

 

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3

I am back at work with gusto and enthusiasm.  Last weekend I taught a class on contemplative living, guided a labyrinth walk, and facilitated the last meeting of our on-line, on-site course in lay discernment.  Throughout the weekend I kept returning to the beautiful lesson of these words from Paul

-live with all humility and gentleness, and with patience.

For the next three weeks I want to explore these spiritual virtues, beginning with humility.

Humility is the grace to know the truth about myself.  It is not the kind of knowing that passes itself off as harsh assessment.  It is also not the overblown admiration for myself, which is sometimes mistaken for self-esteem.  The virtue of humility keeps me in touch with the reality of myself in Christ.  I am then free to move with grace through my life and within the context of my relationships.

The root of the word humility comes from humus or earth.  This refers to the origin of being.  The dust, which God molded in Eden and then enlivened through His Spirit, is the cornerstone of our experience of humility.

Humility invites us back to our essential reality. 

For me, it is so often in humble moments that I experience a glimpse of the grandeur of God’s beauty.

As I sat at the labyrinth last Friday night I was filled with the settled peace of simply being and waiting on what and who God was bringing to me for that moment.  I was not anxious and I was also not asleep.  A moment of humility, whose song was the breeze in the trees, the light going down, the smell of fall, the crunch of feet against dried leaves.  Humility is letting God be God and me be me.  It is a posture of acceptance and surrender.

Blessings,

Debra

Bike Rider

 

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Last Monday my husband bought me a bike.  I haven’t ridden for a very long time, but when I was young, my bicycle was a source of freedom, independence and fun.  The Alaska of my growing up years was wild but also safe enough for a young girl to take off in the morning with a picnic lunch and return late.  I decorated my bike as a float for neighborhood parades. It was a horse upon which to do circus tricks, but primarily it was my transportation to adventure.

That young girl isn’t really gone.  I still have a deep desire for the kind of freedom exemplified by riding through a puddle with your legs off the pedals, your face aglow with delight, and the song of your own voice raised in joy. This is unself-conscious freedom!

The unveiled face, reflecting God’s glory, is the face of delight.  God’s glory shines through us when we allow ourselves to accept the freedom that we have already been given.

For some reason, however, we resist this gift, and we shrink away from transformation.  We are afraid of claiming both the freedom of the Lord and the cost of that same freedom.

But as I have ridden my bike around the island this week, I have begun to see the cost as the gift.  I had to let go of my fear of falling.  I had to let go of my fear of looking foolish.  In the process of realizing my own anxieties, I have surrendered to the possibility that God might have a different vision of me on my bike than I do!

Perhaps God sees the child as well as the adult.  God sees the fun of adventure, as well as the fear of a wobbly start.

And all these images are BEAUTIFUL to GOD!  As I shed fear, I become less self-conscious and more reflective of God’s light.  I am shining the surface of the mirror of my soul each day I strap on the helmet, take off and let the wind of the Spirit power my ride.

What adventure is God inviting you to consider?

For me, it has been worth the cost of wobbly beginnings and tentative stops along the way.

Strap on your helmet-God has a plan for your life!