Humility.... or Upside-Down Pride?

Have you ever heard people talk about "gentling" a horse? When you do that, you take the unharnessed, uncontrolled power of a horse and rein it in (excuse the pun). The horse is now strength under control, which, strangely enough, is how humility is often defined. When a horse is gentled, it does not lose its power, it does not lose its confidence. Imagine a horse, under saddle, thinking "Oh my, I can't do that little jump anymore because it might be misinterpreted as arrogance." or a quarterhorse after a win saying that it was all the jockey, but thanks. Yet this is what we are taught as humans, that if we show confidence, we are arrogant. Arrogance is not thinking more of yourself, it is thinking less of others. I once coached a soccer team that believed, every time out, that they were going to win. Now, they understood that in order to do so, they had to play to their potential and work hard, but they knew they were gifted enough to be successful. This is confidence, not arrogance, and something that is very hard to achieve in high school athletes. Some of the parents, however, came to me worried that the team was arrogant. We never belittled an opponent, never took anyone lightly, we just went out and took care of business.

In the church, I often see a false humility in people that does not honor who God made them to be. False humility does not point to God, but points to our weakness and thus, in my mind, is what I call "upside down pride." I personally have had a hard time taking compliments, but I am getting better at it. You see, if you frame your gifts as God has given them, you should have confidence in yourself and in what you were built for. I, for example, believe that I am an average guitar player, an average vocalist, and I am certainly not a detailed planning person. These seem to be things you need to be a successful worship pastor. I think that this is an accurate assessment of my skills. God, however, dealt with me on this issue several years ago showing me that the soft heart He gave me, the training I had through choirs, musicals, drama, band, even the Corps of Cadets at Texas A & M, were all part and parcel to getting me to the point at which I could not just lead His people in worship, but also pastor. For me, it is not so much the effect of one or two amazing gifts, but the combination of many smaller ones that is my strength. So I have been successful in leading worship and pastoring, and I feel comfortable doing it, like that is what I was made for. Too many people dishonor God by dishonoring their giftedness through false humility. You know; "Well, thanks, but...." and then breaking down why they should not have been complimented, or "it was all Jesus." No it wasn't all Jesus. Yes, we gain our strength through Him, but he gifted us and made us co-heirs with Him. Christ died to restore us to what He intended for us. What has been our response? We have elevated low self esteem and demeaning ourselves to an indicator of being spiritual, and that is wrong. In His book The Supernatural Ways of Royalty, Kris Vallotton tells it this way: If we look at a picture and say things like "What a stupid looking painting" or "the colors are all wrong" and "That thing is not very good," does that make the artist look good? Does running down the painting exalt the author? Of course not, so why do we do it with God's creations - us? The problem is that our culture has made it unacceptable to be confident. To the insecure, confidence always looks like arrogance. We do not glorify God by demeaning ourselves, we glorify Him by acknowledging that He is our strength, that He is the source of our gifts. The problem for many gifted leaders, especially in up-front pastoral positions, is that there are many in the congregation who do not get the simple fact that humility is not weakness, it is strength under control. God hold the reins, but He has not taken away the very strength He gave us to do what He designed us for.

So what does this mean for us as Christians? I believe that we are to walk confidently in the gifts and strength that we were made for. What if Jeremiah, who told God he was too young, or Moses, who told God he wasn't a good speaker, or Abram, who told God he was too old, had stuck with their own limited view of themselves? God's plan would still have been done, since he is in charge, but not through those "giants of the faith." On the flip side, how arrogant was David perceived, even (perhaps especially) by his own brothers? But read 1 Samuel 17 and see how things go. David says to Goliath in verse 46: "This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head." He doesn't ever say that he is too weak, that he is not very good, that someone better should do it, he says "I will kill Him." Then he chooses not to use someone else's weapons for the task, but uses those that God has given him skill with, no matter how unorthodox they seem to others. The rest, as they say, is history. We should do likewise. When we are asked to use the gifts we have been given, we should do so without apology. Acknowledge where our strength comes from, but operate in the strength. If we make ourselves lower than the enemy, we deny the power and authority we have been given as true sons and daughters. When we compare ourselves with others we either find ourselves wanting and feel insufficient or find ourselves superior and look down on the others. When we do what God has put us here to do and we are successful, we glorify the creator. When we allow God to work His strength through us, we may come to realize that our battles are smaller than we thought.