Humility is Love
How does your humility show your love?
Verse of the Day
‘Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud’
Today’s Devotional
As we are looking for the answers to our pride problem, and we know the answer is humility, it’s important to recognize that humility is a component of love. So if we want to study every aspect of humility, we need to be willing to look at how humility affects our ability to love.
We know that Jesus boiled down the most important command to this: Love God and love people. But how can I love God and others if I am wrapped up in pride? I can’t. Let’s look at an example. This story is unknown in origin and I found it on a blog called Grow and Teach.
One hot afternoon on a beach, people noticed a young girl drowning. They quickly rescued her. The little girl was unconscious. An old man from a nearby cottage hurriedly reached for the girl laid down on the seashore. As the old man was about to hold the girl, a furious guy warned the people surrounding the girl to step aside, including the old man.
“I was trained to do CPR. Stay out of this! Let me do it!” the guy exclaimed.
The old man stood up and stepped behind the guy and watched quietly while the latter was performing CPR for the girl.
After almost a minute, the little girl regained consciousness. The people around them felt relieved and began applauding the guy. The old man, who looks very happy, gratefully congratulated the guy as well.
After two hours, however, the guy who saved the girl suddenly felt too much fatigue, experienced difficulty in breathing and became unconscious. A few minutes later, he woke up in an ambulance rushing him to the nearest hospital. Beside him was the old man he saw earlier at the beach now checking his pulse rate. The old man performed CPR on him while he was unconscious. This time he learned that the old man is a doctor.
“Why didn’t you tell me you’re a doctor?” he asked.
The doctor just smiled and answered: “It doesn’t matter to me whether you call me a doctor or not. A precious life is in danger. I became a doctor, not for fame, but to save lives. We had the same goal, and that was to save the girl. Nothing can surpass the feeling that you have just saved another life. There’s a lot of things to be protected other than our ego.”
The teary-eyed man humbly said: “Well, you have just saved two more lives today.”
This doctor showed his love for others in his humility. He was quick to allow another person to use his capabilities, even knowing his own skills were probably better. He applauded the success of the man who did CPR on the girl, which was showing love by celebrating another. His love showed itself in his willingness to allow another person to shine. His love showed in his lack of need for recognition. His love showed in his only concern being the well being of these strangers, without any need for title, respect, praise, and entitlement. His humility proved his love to the man he saved.
We can follow Jesus’s command to love God and others only when we become truly humble. When we put God in His proper place of Lordship in our loves. When we constantly remember that our life is meant to be one of service. When we have a proper view of ourselves. When we value each and every other human on this planet as a beloved child of God.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How have you behaved in ways to protect your ego?
How does pride get in the way of your ability to love well?
How does the humility of others help you to receive their love?
How does the humility of Jesus show you the power of His love?
How can you embrace humility as a way to help love God and others well today?