We live in a culture that lives with the consequences of an individualised, consumerist worldview - what's right for you isn't necessarily right for me; I am what I consume; I know best - that proves that community doesn't work unless we raise our eyes beyond our own immediate surroundings and needs, look to the needs of others, look to reach out and connect with other human beings, and accept the help of others when it's there. In Britain we supposedly live within the most 'tolerant' society in the world. If tolerance is merely accepting the existence of other cultures and world views, but not having anything to do with them, and remaining as tribal and closed minded as we always were, then I'm not sure what we gain, except a fragmented society.
A lot of us find accepting help, or criticism (however constructive), or advice a strangely difficult thing to go through: there's this sense that it displays weakness, and that weakness is wrong, shows us up to be something we don't want to be. Or it shows that we didn't know best after all. The mad rush that encapsulates most of modern living - anger vented at missing the 'one every 2 minutes' tube trains, snatching lunch in front of the laptop, barely time to take onboard the information needed to make an important decision, yet making it anyway, a lack of quality time with immediate family let alone more distant relatives - it all seems to come from this sense that to stop and contemplate, or sit back and reflect, is somehow a second rate activity.
Perhaps I'm painting a slightly extreme picture. But all of the above points towards a society that is built on pride. Sometimes, like on programmes likes The Apprentice, that pride, or confidence in the self, is a conscious, deliberate choice that is made, explicitly sold as a virtue that allows one to climb the ladder of life and success. For others, this pride is less obvious, and permeates more of our existence than we realise, because we don't have time to stop and think about it - we cling onto 'my rights', 'my time', 'my life'.
The opposite of pride is humility, to be humble. Humility says "I can't! I need help: I don't know how life is supposed to be lived best. All my striving and straining has come to nothing." It's an admission that discovering life's true joys lies outside of the ability of humans to discern, let alone live out, without some sort of assistance.
How wonderful, how humbling, to know that this is where God wants us to be. He alone knows how life is supposed to be led, and how community works best. At the centre is selflessness, sacrifice, the abandoning of our own rights and expectations, and instead focusing our efforts on others' needs, that noone might be left out. The strong help the weak, and the weak teach the strong that its ok to be weak. But before all of this, comes the realisation that we have the perfect model for humility - Jesus, the Word become flesh, who chose to put aside his majesty and eternal rights, to become one of us, and ultimately to die on a cross for us, having identified with us in weakness.
The key that unlocks humility and surrender (the letting go of our 'rights') is the grace that God so richly provides, both in sending His Son to provide eternal hope to humanity, and in giving us the Holy Spirit, who lives in those who seek to follow Jesus, and who works to make us more like Him. But the problem of pride can still lay a trap for us - we still think that this process starts and ends with us. We recognise the change of direction in our lives, but still insist on carrying on in our own strength.
Yet God calls us to find our strength in Him. Ephesians 6:10 calls us to "be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power," not in our own abilities. And ultimately it's a wonderful promise - God not only calls us into this way of life, which looks so impossible (become like Jesus?!), but insists that we remain reliant on Him, the one who created the entire universe, to see it through to the end.
Both pride and humility both imply giving oneself a position relative to others. The difference between humility and piety is that the former seeks no recognition for its sacrifices and service, whereas the latter glories in its achievements, and is merely a religious form of pride. Humility for some is to accept that our role in this new life may be the equivalent of the receptionist, rather than the CEO in God's Kingdom: the person who serves the tea at the end of the service, rather than the one giving the stirring sermon from the front. Even if we don't want to be in the limelight (for whatever reason), we are tempted to look at ourselves and our role in God's plan through proud eyes - either explicitly thinking of ourselves as more important than others, or implicitly by holding onto what we see as our rights, before reaching out to the needs of others.
So I'd call you now to examine yourself for pride - ask God to reveal where it exists, and if you feel brave, ask Him to remove it from you. If you feel beaten down by the pressures and anxieties of this life, then step back and remind yourself that it is God who richly provides everything we need to achieve what He calls us to achieve, and does not ask us to walk alone.
Philippians 2:5-7
Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
