In St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, he gives us some good food for thought:
“Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:20-31).
Being humble when we are part of something great and powerful is generally not one of our attributes as humans. For most of us just getting close to the Lord is certainly a challenge. Some of us think that we are closer to God than we really are and use this perception of ourselves to judge others. If we are truly close to the Lord our humility is a part of that relationship, so we don’t have to work at it.
We spend most of our lives jockeying for position at school, at work, and in our social circles. Money and things seem to drive us. We chase schemes that seem too good to be true, but we chase them anyway. We have trust in things that don’t deserve our trust. We go out on a limb and gamble on situations quite readily. We place our confidence in many things and people, but we neglect the one and only sure thing in life.
We have a very difficult time surrendering to the Lord. We just can’t seem to abandon ourselves to God. He is the greatest, most powerful, richest, most loving, and most forgiving entity that we can possibly find. Through His Son Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit He can do more for us than we can possibly hope for from other sources, yet He is not our priority. We should take an inventory of how we spend our time each day, week, or month.
How much time are we building up with God? How much time can we truly say that we are spending on our personal spiritual nourishment through prayer or meditation? How much time are we even thinking about God? How much time are we studying to build up knowledge of Him? How much time are we sharing God and Christ with others?
As St. Paul tells us, we don’t have to be wise, or powerful, or of nobility, or strong, or of high status. Our greatest asset and resource is God and through Christ Jesus He waits for us to come to Him in whatever state or condition that we are in or have been in. He is our all in all. We must invest our time and energies wisely and humbly come to the Lord.