“I have prayed for years for one good humiliation a day, and then, I must watch my reaction to it. I have no other way of spotting both my denied shadow self and my idealized persona.” – Richard Rohr
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:10)
I have been thinking of the role of our attitude and our faith lately. Today I listened to an extended interview on NPR with theologian Richard Rohr who spoke directly to these recent thoughts. This is a bold prayer. Honestly, I’m not sure I would want to pray this. Any time I work up the courage to pray for humbling, I do it through gritted teeth. Yet, humility is the engine of spiritual growth because it is the characteristic our Lord embodied the most. He was constantly driven to kneel below the social structures of power and control in this world in order to lift us, the incredibly undeserving, up.
I love this quote because Rohr makes sure to “watch my reaction to it”. It is not a matter of if we will face humiliation but when. As believers, these are rare moments when we get to show the radical reaction of Christ. The standard return of my humbling is often something less than Godly. Imagine the eyes of the searcher, the spiritual wanderer, seeing something as foreign as a Godly handled social falling. The testimony here would be greater than any sermon or Gospel tract. In a world of self-promotion, we are to be the lowly, the humiliated, and the socially broken.
Lord, make us cherish humility over our own gains in this world. Let us watch our reactions and may you use them for a greater glory.
Matt simon blog 