Humility required...

So much has happened recently, it's hard to know where to begin. For most of the USAmerican world, we've been focused--rightly so--on the devastation in Haiti. Americans by and large are such caring people. We're ready to jump in and help just about anyone. That's a good thing.

I started a new job last week as Executive Director of World Vision North Texas. World Vision is an amazing organization, confronting the root causes of poverty and injustice, especially as they impact children. WV has been on the ground in Haiti from before the quake, and many of you have supported their ministry to those at-risk kids and families displaced by such destruction.

These two events to me though have more in common than just my new employer. They outline how incredibly important it is to be humble. This is something that we USAmericans struggle with.

We are the biggest and the best. And especially the smartest. And even more especially the closest to God.

Not.

I have been humbled over the past few years as I have been more and more exposed to other cultures, to other socio-economic strata, to issues that affect people in ways my suburbasexualness has a hard time comprehending.

I have been humbled by people I have met, who have made do for years on what I blow through in a month. People who have only 1 Bible, if they are lucky, and they know it better than me.

I have been humbled by their thoughts on God, politics, ministry, and futbol (yes, I spelled that correctly).

I have often said that when I was 22, I had 4, 083 things that I KNEW to be either black or white, either true or false. Now, at 43, I have 3 or 4. At most. Humility means that we be willing to live life knowing that we do not have all the answers, that our way is not necessarily the best way or right way. Humility honors those that might think differently and genuinely considers what others are thinking and feeling, without immediately dismissing them.

Humility considers others as more important than selves.

I think I've read that somewhere.