Hope-building habit #2: Embrace humility
There’s a moving scene in the movie The Jesus Revolution, where Pastor Chuck Smith (played by Kelsey Grammar) responds to a church member who complains about hippies staining the church’s new shag carpet with their dirty bare feet. The next Sunday, Smith greets the hippies with a wash rag and a smile, washing their dirty feet one by one and welcoming them into fellowship.
Our culture doesn’t prize power bending low. And yet, Jesus – the One with all authority – was the original foot washer. Once, while eating a meal in the home of a religious leader, He watched guests claim the best seats at the table and had this to say:
“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves
will be exalted.” (Luke 14:11 NIV)
Science also offers a glimpse into humility’s benefits. One group of researchers suggested that humility is to relationships what oil is to an engine – it prevents relational breakdown. Humility, they concluded, buffers the wear-and-tear that a spirit of competition has on relationships.
How does all of this attach to hope?
A rich Hope is birthed when we have the humility to lay down our deepest, most desperate desires. For example, when we have the humility to be okay with not having things our way, not attacking back on social media, or not receiving accolades for a good deed.
Whether it’s our desired social standing, a job promotion, the “right” health, or our kid winning all the trophies, when we release our white-knuckle grip on the outcome we want and live humbly surrendered to what God knows we need, Hope enters.
This isn’t to say that jobs, health, and our kids aren’t worthy of persistent prayer. They are! But remember, Capital-H Hope doesn’t hinge on any one outcome.
Capital-H Hope surrenders to the realization that God is God, and we are not.
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