How's that humble pie?

What does it mean to be humble? What does it mean to accept the possibility that you may be wrong? Humility is not something that a lot of us are accustomed to, we don't like it and we want none of it. Humility is about acceptance and honesty, humility is about seeing beyond your own scope and recognizing that there may be more to something than you can see. Humility is knowing your place in the world and accepting it. We expect children to be humble and listen to what we tell them because we are older and we know more, we expect our subordinates at our jobs to be humble because we are the managers and supervisors, sometimes we expect our spouse's to be humble because we know more about a specific subject than they do, we expect humility from other people, but rarely do we practice this principle in our own lives.

The apostle Paul wrote, "the man who thinks he knows something does not yet know what he should know." We are a people who claim to know everything. We have all the information we can possibly want right at our fingertips. If I want to know what the year 200 b.c was like all I need to do is press a couple of keys and there it is, if I want to know who won the olympic games 40 years ago, its easy to find. In our world knowledge and information is so easy to acquire that we have all, in our own minds, become experts on any topic. The problem with this is that in reality we are not experts. We base most of what we know on google searches and wiki answers. We have not done the real work of study needed to become experts in anything.

Socrates said, "the only thing I know is that I know nothing." Socrates was a great teacher who using his own method. When someone came to him and asked him a question, Socrates would often ask a question back to the person and allow the person to come to the answer on his own. We call this the Socratic Method. Socrates believed that the answers to questions we hidden deep in the person and that he needed to do was allow them to see that they had the answer already. He would cause people to think and use their rational faculties in order to come to an understanding of things. Jesus often used this method (although I don't think he would have called it the Socratic Method) often with those that would listen to him speak. Someone would ask him a question and he would tell a story and then ask a question to the questioner. Asking questions to me is a sign of humility, it points to the fact that you don't know something but you believe the someone else might.

I believe that asking questions is a vital part of spiritual growth. When we want to understand something on a deeper level we ask questions in hopes that we will find the deeper meaning. Unfortunately asking questions in certain settings has been deemed inappropriate. What if you were sitting in church one day and the preacher says something that you didn't understand or even agree with? Would you just sit there and accept what he said or would you go up and ask him afterward to further explain? If you leave church that day without getting any clarification, then either you ignored him and kept thinking the way you want (not humble) or you just believed what he said and threw out your own understanding (not humble). In my understanding the best thing would be to go and speak to the person and ask questions. The person speaking may have more insight for you to better understand and so its possible that you may learn something new. Or maybe you may have more insight than that person and that person may learn something new.

Humility is not throwing away all your knowledge and experience, humility is recognizing that you may not know everything. Wisdom is combining what you have experienced and what information you have studied and conversing with those who have experienced and studied other things. Can you imagine if we were more open to others in our daily lives? Can you imagine what we can learn and what we can accomplish by pooling all the experience and knowledge around us?

I wonder what church would look like if we didn't have all these denominational splits. I wonder what would happen if we opened the doors to new ways of worship and study. I wonder if we are missing an experience with God because the name above the door to our church is different than the one down the road.

About 5 years ago I was exposed to a very different type of worship. I had never been to a Pentecostal church before and didn't know what to expect. As I sat in the seats listening to the loud music, watching people dance waving flags, trying to understand the people prostrating themselves, I prayed to God. I prayed that He would allow me to see the beauty in this form of worship and push out all my presuppositions and beliefs that the way I do it, in my church, is the only way it can be done. That prayer has been repeated many times over the last 5 years. It was a piece of humble pie that I needed to eat. I believe that piece of pie forever changed my life and has opened me up to the God is not boxed into my own understanding. God does not belong in our boxes, he doesn't belong in any box or confined space, so why do we try and put him there?

The Genesis of Practice

In this chapter of the Finding Our Way Again Mclaren points to the fact that the ancient practices of the three major religions can be seen to begin with Abraham. In fact Judaism, Islam, and Christianity look at Abraham as the father of their particular religion. The ancient practices that are going to be discussed over the next year are pilgrimage, fasting, sacred meal, common prayer, giving, Sabbath, and liturgical year. Each practice has a book dedicated to it in this series of books. Again my plan is to read through each one of them and interact not only in written word but also in action.

I want to put my thoughts into action. In many ways I have, for some, I am proud, for others, not so proud. But that is the journey of life. Journey is an interesting concept. Are you journeying through life? Do you recognize that life is a journey? I see life as a journey, or as used above, a pilgrimage. In life we set goals for ourselves and then we do our best to achieve those goals. These goals are pretty typical, house, family, retirement package, travel, etc. These are great goals. I have some of those myself. But, what about the goals that you can not see i.e. happiness, joy, peace, love, and gratitude. These goals are too often linked to the previous goals. Often what I have found and read when men and women look back on their lives the things that meant most to them were the latter goals. The houses and money and retirement packages were nice but they didn't bring what they really wanted.

For me, my journey and goals are going to consist of desiring both, but most important the things that cannot be seen. My thought is if I can not find those things that make the soul feel alive how will I ever really enjoy the things that make the body feel alive. If I am dead on the inside, how can I be alive on the outside.

It reminds me of Dorian Gray, in the story by Oscar Wilde, Gray's physical appearance never changes. Dorian recognizes that his beauty and his charm can get him anything he wants, so lives a scintillating life filled with serving the physical desires. One day he notices this painting on the wall and recognizes the face although it is old and decrepit. It was himself he saw in the painting only thing was the painting took all the results of his lifestyle. Hating himself and ignoring the priests suggestion he stabs the painting with his knife, and this in fact kills him because although he looked pleasant and pleased on the outside his true decaying portrait was his real self.

I wonder what my true self looks like? I wonder how much damage I have done over the years of gratifying selfish pleasures and focusing on what is seen rather putting my focus and attention on what is most important? I think for me this should be a daily question. As I think through ancient practices and apply them to my life, I should be asking the simple question of what is my goal? what do I want out of this? Who and What am I seeking?

Why even care about spiritual practices

Brian McLaren wrote, “You can’t take an epidural shot to ease the pain of giving birth to character. In a sense, every day of your life is labor: the rhythmic agony of producing the person who will wake up in the your body tomorrow, creating your reputation, continuing your legacy, and influencing your family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and countless strangers, for better or worse. It is questionable whether you can ever be exactly the same person for two consecutive days: what today throws at you will force you to become better or bitter for tomorrow; it will push you toward breakdown or breakthrough, nudge you a step closer to courage, nobility, charity, integrity, and honor... or otherwise.

It seems to me that working on my character is not top priority. Growing up some of the most important things in life consisted of being tough, being cool, having money, having clothes, and fresh pair of kicks. None of those things actually prepare you for the real world. In my estimation the real world is not the world filled with meaningless jobs, meaningless conversations, and meaningless relationships. The world is much bigger and deeper. We tread mostly on the top soil of the world. We focus on the exterior rather reaching the depths where real sustenance begins. We must get to the root.

I believe that spiritual practices will bring us to that place. “Spiritual practices are actions within our power that help us narrow the gap. They help us become someone weighty, someone worthy of a name and reputation, someone who makes survival worthwhile by turning life’s manure into fertilizer.”

In my life I have had to deal with some manure. Some has stayed manure and others I have turned into fertilizer. The recognition that I have manure is the first step towards changing it. I feel so often that I have allowed my pride and my insecurities to prevent me from changing and morphing some of that manure. If you are walking down the road or in some field and you are watching the ground you can notice if someone has not picked up after their dog and you can avoid it. The problem is for me so often I am looking in the wrong direction and I step right in it (its probably one of my dogs anyway). I am not aware enough. I am not willing to look hard enough probably because of fear, fear of what I might find.

I need to alter my vision. I need to focus on what is important in life. There is a deep longing to be connected to something bigger than myself. Many people in history have felt that longing and have used spiritual practices to satisfy that longing, to find that connection, to identify what is most important in life.

Prayer: God I ask that you will open my eyes and allow me to see, I ask that you will open my ears and allow me to hear. As I practice these principles and and allow your spirit to guide and direct me, open my heart to your beauty, open my heart to what is important in this life.