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Humility
【Humility】The story is told
of two brothers who grew up on a farm. One went away to college, earned a law
degree, and became a partner in a prominent law firm in the state capital. The
other brother stayed on the family farm. One day the lawyer came and visited
his brother, the farmer. He asked, “Why don’t you go out and make a name for
yourself and hold you head up high in the world like me?” The brother pointed
and said, “See that field of wheat over there? Look closely. Only the empty
heads stand up. Those that are well filled always bow low.”
Said
differently, “The branch that bears the most fruit is bent the lowest to the
ground.
【Humility】Humility is like a slippery watermelon seed. Once you
get it under your finger and you think you have it, it slips away from your
grasp.
【Humility】”When a certain rhetorician was asked what was the
chief rule of eloquence he replied. ‘Delivery.’ What was the second rule,
‘Delivery.’ What was the third rule, ‘Delivery.’ So if you ask me concerning
the precepts of the Christian religion, first, second, third, and always I
would answer: ‘Humility.’”—Augustine
【Humility】An ardent music lover unexpectedly met the great
Johannes Brahms. On recognizing the composer the man asked: “Master, would you
please write here a small portion of a masterpiece and sign it so I can have a
precious memory of this fortunate encounter?”
Brahms
took the pencil and paper, scribbled the initial bars of The Blue Danube
by Johann Strauss and signed: “Unfortunately not by me, Johannes Brahms.”
【Humility】There is an old ditty that goes: “It needs more skill
than I can tell / To play the second fiddle well.”
In
a similar vein, Leonard Bernstein was once asked which instrument was the most
difficult to play. He thought for a moment and then replied, “The second
fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play
the second fiddle with enthusiasm-that’s a problem. And if we have no second
fiddle, we have no harmony.”
【Humility】Dr. H. A. Ironside felt that he was not as humble as
he thought he ought to be. Showing his concern, he asked an elder friend what
he could do about it. His friend replied, “Make a sandwich board with the plan
of salvation in Scripture on it and wear it, then walk through the business and
shopping area of downtown
Ironside
followed his friend’s advice. Upon completion of this humiliating experience,
he returned to his apartment. As he took off the sandwich board, he caught
himself thinking, “There’s not another person in
【Humility】A well-known incident in the life of Robert E. Lee
occurred while that southern gentleman was riding on a train to
Being
a Christian, General Lee knew that good manners and humility demand
consideration for people in all walks of life, not merely for those of high
social ranking like himself.
【Humility】We have plenty of people nowadays who could not kill
a mouse without publishing it in the Gospel Gazette. Samson killed a
lion and said nothing about it: the Holy Spirit finds modesty so rare that He
takes care to record it. Say much of what the Lord has done for you, but say
little of what you have done for the Lord. Do not utter a self-glorifying
sentence! –C. H. Spurgeon
【Humility】Corrie ten Boom was once asked if it was difficult
for her to remain humble. Her reply was simple. “When Jesus rode into Jerusalem
on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches
and throwing garments on the road, and singing praises, do you think that for
one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for
him?”
She
continued, “If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in His glory, I
give him all the praise and all the honor.”
【Definition of Humility】Andrew Murray
gave a near-perfect definition of humility:
“Humility
is perfect quietness of heart. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing
that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be rest when
nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed
home in the Lord, where I can go in and shut the door, and kneel to my Father
in secret, and am at peace as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and
above is trouble.
The
humble person is not one who thinks meanly of himself, he simply does not think
of himself at all.”
【Knowledge and Humility】”Never seem more
learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocketwatch and
keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when
you are asked.”—Lord Chesterfield, Letters to His Son
【Test of Humility】”The true way to
be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at
your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real
smallness of your greatness is.”—Phillips Brooks
【Test of Humility】The Navigators
are well known for their emphasis on having a servant attitude. A businessman
once asked Lorne Sanny, president of the Navigators, how he could know when he
had a servant attitude. The reply: “By how you act when you are treated like
one.”
【Pride】A life that is wrapped up in itself makes
a very small package.
【Pride】Pride is like a beard. It just keeps
growing. The solution? Shave it every day.
【Pride】A minister, a Boy Scout, and a computer
expert were the only passengers on a small plane. The pilot came back to the
cabin and said that the plane was going down but there were only three
parachutes and four people. The pilot added, “I should have one of the
parachutes because I have a wife and three small children.” So he took one and
jumped.
The
computer whiz said, “I should have one of the parachutes because I am the
smartest man in the world and everyone needs me.” So he took one and jumped.
The
minister turned to the Boy Scout and with a sad smile said, “You are young and
I have lived a rich life, so you take the remaining parachute, and I’ll go down
with plane.”
The
boy Scout said, “Relax, Reverend, the smartest man in the world just picked up
my knapsack and jumped out!”
【Pride】Many Christians are like the woodpecker
who was pecking on the trunk of a dead tree. Suddenly lightning struck the tree
and splintered it. The woodpecker flew away unharmed. Looking back to where the
dead tree had stood, the proud bird exclaimed, “Look what I did!”
【Pride】Pride is the only disease known to man
that makes everyone sick except the one who has it.
【Pride】A conceited person is someone who does a
crossword puzzle with a ballpoint pen.
【Pride】An article titled “The Art of being a big
Shot” was written by a very prominent Christian businessman named Howard Butt.
Among many other insightful things he said were these words:
“It
is my pride that makes me independent of God. It’s appealing to me to feel that
I am the master of my fate, that I run my own life, call my own shots, go it
alone. But that feeling is my basic dishonesty. I can’t go it alone. I have to
get help from other people, and I can’t ultimately rely on myself. I’m
dependent on God for my next breath. It is dishonest of me to pretend that I’m
anything but a man-small, weak, and limited. So, living independent of God is
self-delusion. It is not just a matter of pride being an unfortunate little
trait and humility being an attractive little virtue; it’s my inner
psychological integrity that’s at stake. When I am conceited, I am lying to myself
about what I am. I am pretending to be God, and not man. My pride is the
idolatrous worship of myself. And that is the national religion of Hell! (from
an undocumented source.)
【Pride】Albert Einstein once said, regarding pride
of accomplishment: “The only way to escape the personal corruption of praise is
to go on working. One is tempted to stop and listen to it. The only thing is to
turn away and go on working. Work. There is nothing else.”
【Pride】A rich man once invited many honored
guests for a feast. His own chair, richly decorated, was placed at one end of
the long table. While he was away, each guest seated himself according to his
own esteem of his position in sight of the master. When time came and all were
seated, the master moved his chair to the other end of the table!
【Pride】Many Christians have wrongly concluded
that sexual sins are the worst kind of sin. But that is not true. Sexual sins
are not the worst kind of sins. C.S. Lewis has caught this fact very
accurately. In a paragraph from his book Mere Christianity (New York:
Macmillan, 1986), Lewis says:
“If
anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is
quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least of putting
other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and
backbiting; the pleasures of power, of hated. For there are two things inside
me competing with the human self which I must try to become; they are the
animal self, and the diabolical self; and the diabolical self is the worst of
the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig, who goes regularly to church
may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it’s better to be
neither.”
【Pride】According to Life magazine, Muhammed Ali
spoke of himself before his 1971 fight with Joe Frazier thus:
“There
seems to some confusion. We’re gonna clear this confusion up on March 8. We’re
gonna decide once and for all who is king! There’s not a man alive who can whup
me. (He jabs the air half a dozen blinding lefts.)
I’m
too smart. (He taps his head.)
I’m
too pretty. (He lifts his head high in profile, turning as a bust on a
pedestal.)
I
AM the greatest. I AM the king! I should be a postage stamp-that’s the only way
I could get licked!”
P.S.
Ali lost to Frazier!
【Pride】When the nineteenth-century American
evangelist Asahel Nettleton was asked what he considered the best safeguard
against spiritual pride, he replied: “I know of nothing better than to keep my
eye on my great sinfulness.”
【Pride】In Charles Colson’s book Born Again, which details
his experiences related to Watergate, Colson shares one of President Nixon’s
problems-he could never admit he was wrong in anything. In fact, Colson says,
even when Nixon obviously had a cold-nose running, face red, sneezing, all the
symptoms-he would never admit it.
【Pride】When circus acrobat Philippe Petit was rehearsing in
Bayfront Auditorium in St.
【Pride】The story is told of a laborer who was a mature
Christian and gave a solid testimony before all who knew him. His boss came to
him one day and said, “You know, whatever you’ve got, I want. You have such
peace and joy and contentment. How can I get this?”
The
laborer said, “Go to your home, put on your best suit, come down here, and work
in the mud with the rest of us-and you can have it.”
“What
are you talking about? I could never do that. I’m the boss, you’re the worker.
I can’t do that. That’s beneath my dignity.” The boss came back a couple of
months later and said, “I ask you again, what is it that you have and how can I
get it?”
“I
told you, go put on your best suit, come down and work in the mud with us, and
you can have it.” Again the boss became furious and walked off.
Finally,
in desperation he came back to the laborer and said, “I don’t care what it
takes! I’ll do anything.” The laborer said, “Will you put on your best suit and
comedown and work in the mud?” The boss agreed that he would do even that. Then
the laborer said, “You don’t have to.”
Do
you see the point? The laborer knew what was standing between the boss and
Christ-pride and self.
【Spiritual Pride】There was a godly Christian woman who startled her
friends by saying, “There isn’t a sin of which I am not capable. I could be a
prostitute; I could murder, I could embezzle.”
Most
of her friends were not impressed with her frankness. Instead they thought that
she was displaying a false humility. Then she added, “You don’t really believe
what I just said. I mean it-because I realize that any particular sin that
crops up in someone else’s life expresses itself in me, but in different ways.
Until I accept that, I am self-righteous, proud, and arrogant.”