“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, as it was the substance of things which have come to pass; and it is the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 Lamsa’s translation
“The apostles said to our Lord, increase our faith.”
The Lord’s reply: “If ye have faith even as a grain of mustard seed, ye could say unto this mulberry tree, be uprooted, and planted in the sea; and it would obey you.”
Jesus tells a story then:
Now, which of you has a servant who plows or feeds sheep, and if he should come from the field, would say to him, ‘enter in and sit down?’ But he would rather say to him, ‘prepare something that I may have my supper, and gird yourself and serve me until I eat and drink; and then you also can eat and drink. What! Will the servant receive praise, because he did what he was commanded to do? I do not think so.'”
“Even you also, when you have done all the things which are commanded you, say,
“We are idle servants, we have only done what was our duty to do.”
What’s it all about? Strangely enough, our faith has no deserving in it, no wage, no entitlement. Faith has no worthiness, but thrives in the unworthy, undeserved, un-entitled.
Why? Because faith is the undergirding, the foundation, the premise; or, in our case, the proper attitude, and disposition of mind. In short,
” Blessed are the ‘humble.'” Matthew 5:1 Lamsa
“Selflessness is humility. Humility and freedom go hand in hand. Only a humble person can be free.” Jeff Wilson
“Humility is throwing oneself away in complete concentration on something or someone else.” “One cannot be humble and aware of oneself at the same time.” Madeleine L’Engle, A Circle of Quiet
“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.” Andrew Murray awesome-power-of-humility
Here’s some more, funny ones:
“Humility is accepting that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue.”
“It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.”
” Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men.” humorishere
Here’s a test: Can we laugh at ourselves?
Mac Davis sang a song It’s Hard to Be Humble: Not really self-laughter, but funny.
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
when you’re perfect in every way.
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
‘cos I get better looking each dayTo know me is to love me
I must be a hell of a man.
O Lord it’s hard to be humble
but I’m doing the best that I can.
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, the ultimate torture device is something called “The Total Perspective Vortex.” How does it work? Well, in the words of author Douglas Adams:
When you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little mark, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, “You are here.”
“I find this reality check quite refreshing… I am set free.”.
“Free to appreciate my life when things are going my way and to handle things with grace when they’re not. Free to love and contribute to people when they behave the way I want them to and to continue to love and contribute to them when they don’t. Free to go out and create the life I want when things seem easy and free to continue to move in that direction when things seem hard.” .huffpost.
In closing, I see humor in the parable that Jesus spoke. Down in the dirt, we go. But so much release. When we get into “merit,” we get out of the “grace vortex.” I just made that up. But:
“By faith we have access into this grace wherein we stand.” Romans 5:2 Yes, the substance is grace and this means — Christ, the measure of grace. Ephesians 4:7 By the way, It’s also His faith. Enjoy! Galatians 2:20 love ya
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