Proverbs 23:6-8
As a child in elementary school, I liked to do things that would get a rise out of the girls. One girl in particular had this thing where if you took a comb and rubbed your thumb across it behind her ear she would jump and scream. Another famous and often done annoying sound that typically would get all the girls was the old nails on a chalkboard. Some of you just cringed reliving that sound in your head. You’re welcome!
While these things were typically done while we were in elementary, there are things done today that give me the same type of rise. It’s become a cliche but so many today claim to be self-made. If there is any phrase that bugs me more I have yet to find it. It tells me that the individual has a humility issue. Sure, they can pretend to be humble but as soon as this phrase is uttered, they give themselves away.
Truely humble people understand that nothing they have would have been possible without the people along the way. You might say, “But you don’t understand, I had to teach myself everything that I know, and it was my hard work that got me to where I am?” Count the first-person references in that quote. None of us can claim to be self-made. Throughout history we can see and should thank the people that made the advances that allowed us to further in whatever field we have chosen. All of us have had people in our lives that gave a word of encouragement, maybe a parent, a mentor, a friend, someone who without we might not have “made it”.
But let’s take this a step farther, to claim we are self-made is an impossibility. I am reminded of the story about the scientists that came to God and said something to the effect of, “So what you can make a human being out of nothing than dirt, we can do that as well.” As the scientists began to work, God stops them and says, “Hold on there, use your own dirt.” The point being that God is the Creator of all things. Yes, we have been able to build things from what God has already created but He is the originator of all ideas, concepts and people. Take a look at what Solomon says in Proverbs 23:
Do not eat the bread of a selfish person;
Or desire his delicacies;
For as he thinks within himself, so he is.
He says to you, “Eat and drink!”
But his heart is not with you.
We cannot be a humble person without acknowledging that without God we are and have nothing. Have you been given wealth or status? Thank God and divert all praise to Him who gave it. Enjoy great relationships with others? Thank God for the example that He set in showing us what that looks like. For us to be humble we can except the praise given to us as is the nice thing to do but in our heart, we should always redirect that praise to the only One who deserves it.
Leave a Reply