Keepin' it real

Humility is to make a right estimate of self.~C.H. Spurgeon

When do we ever do that? For me, very rarely. Even when God puts me in lowly circumstances to bring me to a right estimation of self, I still find myself estimating a little bit higher than I ought. The Truth is that we are dust. We are feeble creatures who think far too highly of ourselves. We put on false humility to cloak our pride. For instance, I am delivering dry cleaning to people who can afford to, well, dryclean their clothes, while I am struggling to pay for water to wash my clothes. I am walking up to people's mansions with their drycleaned jeans in hand. I mean, really, dry cleaned jeans?  Must you? And, there are times when they answer their doors and I see the opulence on the inside. And, instead of considering them better than myself, which I am called to do, in my pride I think of my meager circumstances and give myself a pat on the back for being humble. I mean, look at me. I have six kids, one of whom is a newborn. I am homeschooling. I am working to help provide. And, we are broke. What godliness I must possess to still be humble admist all of this hardship? This may seem so foolish to you, but this is the truth of my heart. I am prideful about my humility!

As I told a certain girl today, it must be all of Christ and none of us. It must be all of His righteousness and none of our own. It must be all of His perfect works, and none of our own. It must be all of His merit, and none of our own. The minute that we start looking at ourselves and begin to see some merit in how we live or what we think apart from Chirst is the minute that we look a lot like Satan allowing pride to make a wrong estimation of ourselves. We can never elevate ourselves above Christ, no matter how hard we try. And, we must always, for those of us who count Him as the Author and Perfector of our faith, see ourselves truly: as low as dust apart from Him and fellow heirs with Him.

So, if you dryclean your jeans, I pray that your righteousness is not found in the ability to do so, because mine certainly isn't found in the lack of it.

~Tasha