Embracing Humility: The Gift of Not Knowing

The word for today is "humble," and the invitation today is to live easily in the reality of not knowing, in the gift of not knowing, as opposed to the illusion of certainty. Dallas Willard writes in "Renovation of the Heart" that modern humanity lives in a rage of moral self-righteousness, and that the farther we get away from the person and message of Jesus, the more a spirit of superiority, of moral distancing and condemnation marks the way that we think and the way that we act. [00:25:00]

It turns out that teams who are willing to be humble, who are willing to say, "Well, we'll give up these higher-level draft choices to get more choices later on because we really don't know who's going to be great and who's not. There's just too much uncertainty." The teams who are willing to humble themselves end up doing quite a lot greater, and the teams that live out of a sense of hubris, arrogance, "I know," don't do well. [02:14:00]

C.S. Lewis wrote that pride is actually the anti-God posture of life. He says that other sins—unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness—are mere flea bites in comparison to that drive that I have to say, "I must be God, I must be in control," because pride puts me at odds with other people. I must be smarter, better, stronger than you, than the people around me, in order to feel satisfied. So it's the opposite of love, and it's the opposite of God. [03:33:00]

And this is the way of Jesus, and it was a very counter-cultural way from the beginning. There's a book by John Dickinson, he's a historian in Australia, called "Humilitas," and he takes some time in the book to point out that in the ancient world, humility was not an admired virtue. Aristotle talked about the great-souled man, and because they lived in Greece and Rome and elsewhere in the ancient world in a shame-honor culture, where the job was to accrue honor to yourself, status, prestige, rank, and to avoid shame, lowliness, humility, perceived weakness. [04:19:00]

The modern Western fondness for humility almost certainly derives from the peculiar impact on Europe of the Judeo-Christian worldview, the teaching that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble that is woven through both Old Testament and New Testament. But he notes this is not a religious conclusion. Macquarie is a public university with no division of theology or even religious studies. It is a purely historical finding. [05:48:00]

This is not simply traceable primarily to the stream of Judeo-Christian thought, not even primarily just to Jesus's teaching. It's traceable primarily to one event, and that is his death, his death on a cross. And we might reflect for a moment on two amazing evaluations of crucifixion. One is from the Roman writer Seneca, who lived and wrote these words in virtually the identical time frame as the apostle Paul. [06:37:00]

Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God to be grounds for grasping to entitle him to assert his privilege for his own comfort or status or honor, but rather poured himself out, became an appearance like a human being, took on the form of a servant, humbled himself by death, even death on a cross. And therefore God has exalted him and given him the name that is above every name. [07:54:00]

There is a great reversal, a complete turnaround, in the way that humanity would come to regard humility, and that is traceable primarily to the person Jesus and especially his death on the cross. So now the invitation today is for us to enter into his way and to trust the cross. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's best. I need to be as wise as possible. [08:49:00]

I need to get good counsel from friends. I need to think carefully, but there is a gift in not knowing, because if I can hold on to poise and trust in God and faith and joy and love as I walk through the day and trust that God knows what he is doing, I will grow way more than if I had the illusion of certainty. So today the word is humble. [08:54:00]

I was at a grocery store recently and getting food, and there was somebody working behind the meat counter, and I realized all of a sudden I did not even look at that person as a person. I was just preoccupied with what I had to do, and he could have been a machine. And so to pause and think, "Oh, this is somebody's son, this is somebody's brother, somebody's husband maybe, with a life and dreams," and I could just talk to him for a couple of minutes and joke and enjoy. [09:19:00]

I was with a group of friends, and somebody mentioned the name of somebody who is kind of known in church circles that we're all a part of, and so part of me just wants to scream, "I know that person, I'm important, look at me," and another part of me can check my spirit, say, "No, for crying, don't do that, just shut up, and don't let everybody know how important you are," and you get a little freer, and you come a little more life. [09:59:00]

Today, perhaps the words "I don't know," which would make many NFL teams perform at a much higher level, might be good ones for you and me to hang on. Today is about the day of humility and following the way of the man on the cross, not the illusion of certainty, but the gift of not knowing. Let's practice. [10:18:00]