This 8 day trip is going to include over 40 hours of driving! That's crazy!
I checked the temperature in Tampa, FL. Which is where we will be spending the majority of our trip and it it currently 59 which is amazing considering it was 0 degrees when I drove to the office this morning.
Still a few more tasks to complete but the trip is so close I can smell it. Or maybe that is the smell of the Chainsaw carvers in town. IDK?
As I get ready to leave I am in deep thought over the passage of scripture that I read this morning. I have just finished reading the book of 1st Peter. It took me a month to read it as I read a few verses per day in order to reflect deeply on the words.
This letter, written by Peter, demonstrates the ways in which Peter has been transformed by God. Today, I read about being humble. You might have heard these words but I will write them in case you have not.
"In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble."
This makes me mad. How the heck does God oppose some people and show favor to others. I thought that God so loved the world that he gave His only Son to die for our sins (John 3:16) and that God shows no favoritism (James 2).
This also makes me mad because I have to submit myself to someone else. NOT FAIR!
The kids in my youth group and on my wrestling team both think I am old. But really I am only 22 years old and compared to the average elder in our church I am half their age. Maybe a third of the age of our head elder (though he is still pretty good at tennis).
I don't think I am the only one in the world that has a problem with submitting to others. Whether older or younger. After all, we can all find a reason why we are more qualified or knowledgeable in a certain area of life. We all think we are expects.
And that is our biggest downfall. When we think we know everything we have no room to grow and to learn. When we believe we have arrived at our destination we hinder our ability to travel further on this journey we call life.
Where this becomes incredibly personal for me is in my trip to Florida. Precisely for two reasons. The first is that I grew up in a culture where I respected my mother and father and grew to love them incredibly. I would call my mother and father by either "Mom" and "Dad" or "Mary Jane" and "Joe." Not because I disrespected them but knew calling them by their first name was easier than calling out "MOM" or "DAD." Growing up we were often at sporting events and large family gathering and it was incredibly more efficient to yell their first name.
Furthermore, the culture I grew up in and even the college I attended reinforce these tendencies. My friend's parents did not require of me to call them Mr or Mrs so and so but rather by their God given name. Even the majority of professors at my college did not demand (though some did) that we call them by their professional name. Dr or professor so and so.
Inversely, this is not the culture that my girlfriend grew up in. She grew up with parents and grandparents that found it respectful for their daughter/granddaughter to call them by their surname.
I was reminded by Jasmine that when I meet her father that I will need to call him either "Mr. Benton" or "Reverend Benton." I don't even call my own pastor Reverend. Frightened at the fact that I might slip and call him "Kevin" the first encounter has me worried and tense.
The other area that this because personal is through the housing arrangement while we are down at his house. Being raised in a Christian household we were instructed that sexual intercourse was given as a gift between one man and one woman when they are married. That is how God made it to be because he knew the ramification if one were to engage outside of marriage.
This rule of abstinence is governed within our relationship.
A rule that Jasmine's Father upholds that we do not (nor do I know anyone who does) is sleeping in the same household. He does not believe it is right for two individuals to sleep in the same house, even if they are separated by four floors, if they are not married.
I am not posting this in order to claim how ridiculous I believe this rule is because I know I have created rules in my life that seem redundant to his worldview.
I am posting this to show how their is a tension and it is completely my fault. It is not my fault that we have separate views of the world and rules and regulations but rather how i response to his rules.
The same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders.
Submitting yourself to someone else does not mean you agree with what they want or what they are doing but rather that you value the relationship over the rule.
What do you think he meant when Peter said, "God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble."?
I don't think God will hate you if you disrespect someone. He can't. His love for you is unconditional. If his love for you and for us depended on what we did it would no longer be unconditional it would be conditional to what we did.
Maybe when we are proud, When we think we know better than someone else, God does not oppose us. Rather, maybe we oppose God. Like Adam and Eve in the garden. They rebelled against God. They ate the forbidden fruit because they did not trust God. They became proud. Proud in who? Themselves.
When we put anything in front of God, even logic (which is a gift from God) we are making it our new God.
Does God show favor to the humble?
Yes and no. Once again there is nothing you can do to earn God's love. He couldn't love you any more than he currently does.
But He does know that when we walk in humility that things go better.
Think back to the Ten Commandments with me this afternoon. The first four have to do with our relationship to God. The last six have to do with our relationship with others.
The fifth Commandment (or first on the second tablet) says, "Honor your mother and father, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving to you."
God knew that if we started by honoring our mother and father it would flow into all of our relationships. You know how someone is going to treat others by how they treat their parents. Out of that commandment God says, "Don't Murder, Don't commit adultery, Don't Steal, Don't lie, Don't covet."
If you respect someone you wouldn't murder them, you wouldn't sleep with their wive, you wouldn't steal from them, you wouldn't lie to them, and you wouldn't want their stuff.
Jesus summarizing the Ten Commandments told us the two greatest commandments were to "Love the Lord God with all of your heart, soul, mind and love your neighbor as yourself.
God understood that if we honor and respected each other we would live a much better life. For example, You are free of guilt if you never murder anyone. Your marriage is better off if you only sleep with your spouse.
It feels like we are receiving blessings and favor from God by it is simply us following the common sense law of God that he established for our benefit.
Peter goes on to say in his letter, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time."
When we set down our pride, our agenda, and the way we perceive the world we are able to learn from others. We are able to ask questions and learn about others. We are to take the focus off of me and place it on another. We are able to dig deep and learn the story of another. Instead of being quick to judge and slow to speak we need to be slow to speak and quick to listen and learn.
Humbling yourself before another does not mean you lower your self-esteem and go into a stage of depression it simply means you take the focus off of yourself and are willing to go about things in a different manner.
Humbling yourself does not depend on your emotions. In fact, I urge you to trick your emotions. When someone does or says something that pisses you off: response in love. When someone makes a rule that you see no purpose in it, instead of becoming defensive, ask them why they believe in that rule. They might have a good reason.
And finally, humbling yourself is not easy. Saint Paul, who wrote to the church in Philippi, tells us to have the same mindset as Jesus. Jesus humbled himself to the point of being killed on a cross. Because of Jesus's humbleness God exalted him.
It would have been easier for Jesus to not die on the cross. But he was motivated by love. He valued the relationship over his situation. He said, "The needs of the many out way the needs of the few." Or was the star trek? Whatever.
When you are motivated by love you set aside your control. May you and I fall more in love with Jesus and with others. As we love each other the way we treat each other will change. Will you join with me on this quest of setting aside my knowledge, pride, degrees, and qualifications and follow the way of the Jewish Carpenter of Nazareth?
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