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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Humble. Humble. Humble.

Lately I have fallen easily into a state of pride or put myself on a higher place than I should. Continually I pray for God to strike my pride down, pull me from my pedestal and place me where I belong. Compassion, love and mercy should be felt in my very presence with others - not judgment or condemnation. Even if they don't feel it, which I pray to God no one ever does, it should not be there, buried in my heart or creeping in the back of my mind. It's amazing to me the secrets we try to hide from God and how much He knows about us (uh, everything). Yet, I look at someone and see only the surface, only a tiny bit, and think I know someone. Think I have the right to make an assumption about who they are or what their character is. Even if it is "clearly" evident their life is messy, who cares? Since when did that make them unlovable, unwanted or not good enough for me? They are good enough for God and their hearts could very well be in a better state than mine. Looking good on the outside is so overrated. I often dream of throwing all moral code out the window, living how I want, and hoping people would love me still. They would not. But if I was honest with God and truly seeking Him, how I ended up living would be as much like Jesus as I could ever be. I wonder what that looks like? I think I've caught some glimpses. I've seen it. Beautiful moments in time captured by people who are connected to Christ and creation and they know it and live it.

Compliments annoy me. I've learned to say thank you, and I try to mean it when I say thank you. I also try to compliment people, I'm not very good at it, but I try. It certainly does make a stranger's day when I tell them how pretty they are. The only good compliment I ever got was from my enthusiastic, dramatic coworker at Starbucks last year: "Emma, every time I see you I think about Jesus!"

We rarely worked together because of our opposite schedules, but he said that to me once because he was not a conventional Christian but he definitely loved to talk about Jesus - and I was a reminder to him of Jesus whenever we did see each other. I will treasure that compliment for the rest of my life. I can only continue to pray for humbleness and thank God that I have the privilege to bear His son's name.

1 comments:

Donna Boucher said...

That is indeed the best compliment I have ever heard.

God made you beautiful on the outside for a reason.
Use it for God's glory, like Esther.

;o)

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