strength of journey
Mar.18,2012
“Do
nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind
regard one another as more important than yourselves” Philippians 2:3
NASB
Kids are great! Things that we take for granted are
occasions for awe and wonder for them. And their perspectives are often
convictingly right on.
Take, for instance, the little girl who
loved watching the planes that took off from a nearby airport as she
played in her backyard. From her point of view, planes literally got
smaller and smaller the farther they flew away. Which explains the
strange thing she said to her dad after he decided to take her on a
business trip. Soon after taking off, she turned to her dad and said,
“Daddy, are we small yet?”
That’s a really important—and
challenging—question to ask ourselves. There is something about us that
doesn’t like feeling small. It starts early. Any kid worth his salt
will gladly throw up his arms and do the “so big!” routine when you ask
him, “How big are you?” We may stop throwing up our arms, but we never
really grow out of wanting to be “so big” in other people’s eyes. It’s
amazing how quickly life gets to be all about who’s got the nicest
house, the best job, the coolest car, the highest degree, the biggest
diamond, or the best office on the executive floor. We are quick to
defend ourselves to keep ourselves looking good. We like to draw
attention to our accomplishments and turn conversations to focus on us,
and we find ourselves a little put out when we are not noticed or
invited to hang out with the “in” crowd.
For most of us, life is about anything but making ourselves small. We are the tall “I” in the middle of our universe.
And that’s a problem.
In Philippians
2:3-11, Paul tells us that we need to stop living to advance ourselves
and our own interests and instead start considering others as more
important than ourselves. In fact, he says that we should do nothing
from “empty conceit”—which literally means the puffing up of our
nothingness. I love the graphic picture in that thought. No matter how
big you puff up a zero, it’s still a zero!
And then he points us
to Jesus who didn’t consider his “big” standing in heaven a thing to
hang on to, but rather He humbled himself to care for our interests by
becoming obedient to death on the cross. Think of that! Jesus thought
of us and our needs as being more important than His own! He made
himself small that we by His abundant mercy might become big in the
riches of His grace.
Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus!
Are you small yet?
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