Love and Humility

We've been talking about love and humility a lot at church lately.  In fact, listening to older sermons I'd say that's always a common theme at our church, and I feel rightly so.

It's interesting how closely related love and humility are.  Both are about putting others above ourselves.  And with both, the closer we think we are to truly loving or being truly humble, the further away from true love and humility we tend to be.  In general, whenever I'm thinking, "I'm doing a good job being loving!" what I'm thinking on a deeper level is "They sure do owe me for being such a great guy!", which is completely self-centered and pretty much the polar opposite of love. In the same way, the more humble we think we are the more prideful we are of our imagined humility.

But really, both of those are just human nature, aren't they?  How can we as humans truly love without receiving it in return?  We get tired and just worn out trying, don't we? How can we love with a love that is limitless and not at all based on rather we're receiving love or rather the person we love deserves any of it?  And how can we be truly humble when all our efforts at humility lead us to comparing it to the people around us, and consequently becoming prideful?

The only answer for those questions is that we can not. We can not show love without receiving it, and we cannot be humble when we compare ourselves to the people around us.

I believe the ONLY solution is for us to draw from the only infinite source of love, and compare ourselves to the only ultimate example of humility.  Because when we fill our love tank from God, and fulfill our need for love in HIS infinite, pure love, we can then start to love others even when they hurt us and don't love us in return. We can finally stop focusing on what we think they should be doing and focus on just loving them. And we see in God's love how to love, and what it really means to be humble. And we can get past how good of a job we think we're doing and realize the truth of Matthew 20:16, "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."


In other news, I am participating in the St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend to support the kids of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital! As a St. Jude Hero, I have committed to raise $1000 for the kids of St. Jude. I feel that this is a very noble cause, and would like to ask you personally to help me support St. Jude by donating today at http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/Heroes/Heroes?px=2006882&pg=personal&fr_id=3631.

Your donation helps by ensuring that no family ever has the burden of having to pay St. Jude for anything. It also ensures that St. Jude is able to continue changing the way the world treats childhood cancer and other deadly diseases through its research.

A Short Rant on Politics

The people we elect are supposed to be the people we choose to represent US. If you honestly feel that Obama or Romney represents what you want for this country and future generations, then that is another discussion. But if you are voting for who you feel is the lesser of two evils, then I would beg you to re-consider. The problem with repeatedly voting for "the lesser of two evils" is that you always end up with evil winning. It also perpetuates the cycle of having two people pre-chosen for us to "choose" between, and elections in general being nothing but a big charade. Our choices are /not/ going to get better if we keep doing this. So I would beg you to study and vote for someone who does represent what you want for this country and future generations, even if they don't stand a chance of winning. Because at least that way you won't be voting for evil.

Also, just to clarify, I use "evil" here not in reference to Obama or Romney as people. As people they are certainly no more evil than I myself am. I use it because "the lesser of two evils" is common language when talking about elections. My problems with Obama and Romney have nothing to do with rather I like them or not. I imagine both of them would be quite fine people to be around. So when talking about them, I'm never attacking them personally, I'm attacking what they represent -- a set of policies and ideals that I strongly disagree with.