Pre-Dawn Humility

Looking out into the predawn light, I contemplate the beginning of another week.

I find myself continually brought back and forth between two positions, wanting to go out there and "tear it up" even while I am trapped by the fact that my enthusiasm would only further the goals of folks other than me and would in the end not make a great deal of difference.

But this is the fact that I was reaching for yesterday as well, the idea of recognition and serving the ends of others, even as they may not recognize that fact.

But in some way we are all serving the ends of others; in the big picture, we are serving the ends of God (consciously or unconsciously).

Yesterday at church, the sermon was on humility. Our pastor noted that every morning, we have two choices: exalt ourselves or humbling ourselves. There is no third option. Every action we take has the effect of doing one or the other.

We want to be noticed. Humility, he stated, handles our needs for notice. By exalting ourselves, we need other's notice. By humbling ourselves, we notice other's needs. What about our needs? As Christians, we leave it to God to notice our needs.

By humbling myself, I definitively turn my eyes towards the needs of others, of meeting their goals. My goals? In some cases it then turns on God to meet those; in others, perhaps it is my goals themselves that need changing.

So in my predawn angst, there's my answer. In whatever I do today, am I seeking to notice the needs of others and serve them? That is the commandment from God, whether in business or personal relations.

Effect? Impact? My own goals and agenda? Those, with humility, I turn over to God. If He does them, He will do them better than I and will receive the glory, not myself.

Which, if you think about it, is the ultimate point of humbling one's self.