I got on a plane and took my seat next to a guy and when I sat down beside him, he acted like he was irked at being subjected to my mere presence. I briefly wondered if I might know him, but could not place him.
During the flight he complained about nearly everything to the poor flight attendent who appeared as though ready to cry. He was obviously full of himself and maybe something else too, so I immersed myself in my work for the flight.
It seemed that ignoring him was the one thing he couldn’t take, because when I did so he opened up a conversation with me. He said, “I assume you know who I am”.
I replied, “No, do I know you?”
He looked at me like I was an ignoramus, and then told me his name, (which I didn’t recognize and don’t remember). When he didn’t see the recognition that he expected on my face, he told me that he was an actor and he mentioned that perhaps I’d seen his last acting gig for which he told me the name, (which I didn’t recognize and don’t remember either).
I replied, “Well I don’t watch much TV”.
To which he looked at me like I was a dumb nincompoop and told me that was the name of his latest “movie“. I nonchalantly smiled and said, “Well I don’t watch many “movies” either”, at which point I thought he would wet himself because he was so perturbed.
This guy was so enamored with himself that he could have made it to Webster’s dictionary as an antonym for humble, because he was the diametric opposite.
Yesterday my good friend TK Wetherell and I went turkey hunting and we scored yet another nice gobbler. I just “happened” to mention this little piece of good news a little later at our executive council meeting as it was ending. I casually said, “In case anyone has not heard, my friend TK and I bagged yet another trophy turkey today. I then beamed, “I called in, (count them), seven gobblers”.
It was as though everyone in the room had received an unspoken order to leave as quickly as they could get out of there; they all started making their way to the door like a spooked herd of cattle in an effort to escape hearing me brag about my hunting prowess…Again…
Hmmm… It seems none of us like to be around a proud, conceited, bigheaded, haughty, egotistical, overconfident, self-important, and condescending supercilious, jerk telling them how great we are.
Jesus Christ has plenty to brag about. He is the King of all kings and Creator of all things visible and invisible and yet He chose to be born in the most humble of settings, a simple manger. It set the stage for His life. He did not own a home, or have any possessions or money. He walked everywhere He went and His life was all about others, including you and me. He didn’t have a single servant and was all about serving others.
If anyone had bragging rights He did, but He didn’t go from town to town tooting His own horn saying, “Did you see the look on all those people’s faces when I healed that guy of leprosy, or made that blind guy see? Did you see that glorious sunrise this morning, you know I created that didn’t you? Did you know it was my idea to create that beautiful Sea of Galilee? Hey, see that over there, I own that, and that, and tha, in fact I own everything as far as you can see in any direction.”
No the image of Jesus is one of His getting down and washing the feet of His disciples which no doubt were filthy from walking miles of dusty roads. The King of kings on His knees washing the feet of His friends; that is a picture of what Jesus wants us to do.
In the famous book, “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie it teaches that people are most interested in themselves and if you want to get along better with them you need to cater to that knowledge. In fact he did a study of phone conversations and the words “I” and “me” are used more often than any other words in the English language. It comes natural for mankind to be all about ourselves.
It is the natural way, but not the Godly way. We are to follow Jesus and not the world. Years ago Mac Davis wrote a song and the lyrics go like this:
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
when you’re perfect in every way.
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
cause I get better looking each day.
To know me is to love me
I must be a hell of a man.
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
but I’m doing the best that I can.
Are you doing the best you can? I don’t know about you, but I suppose I need to cool it on bragging about the turkey hunting prowess thing and come to think of it maybe some other stuff too…
Phil.2:3
Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. …