Humble yourself

I must be a proud man. And yet I can humble myself when the need arises. I know I am proud because when I do it I am so conscious of doing it and it feels so weird.

Humble yourself. When writing your term paper humble yourself. Do it the way the professor wants you to do it. It makes it so much easier. I have done it both ways and I know. Really humbling yourself is often the easiest path.

We watched Hobson's Choice last night, a movie from 1954 directed by David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia) and starring Charles Laughton and John Mills. The protagonist would have done much better if he had humbled himself. But he has to come to humility the hard way. He finally does humble himself in the end. I read that is what is called a "Hobson's Choice". I had never heard that expression before. Had you?

Jesus humbled himself (Philippians 2:7). He became a man when he was God. That's humility. And as a man he was obedient and submitted himself to death for us, a very painful death. Paul tells us Jesus is our model we should be like him.

Paul then says God glorified him. It is much better to let God glorify us than to try to do it for ourselves. What if we are successful at glorifying ourselves.

The commentator mentions politicians. I do not think all politicians are bad. And almost all start out good. But a politician is one who does succeed at glorifying himself. How would you feel if thousands sometimes millions vote for you and pick you over all others? You are going to feel glorified. You are going to burst your buttons. It is no wonder that some of them will feel that they are above the rules and perhaps even legally exempt themselves from some of them. It may be amazing that there are many who remain honest. My U.S. Representative and I do not agree on a lot (Gene Green) but it does appear he is very honest in his dealings. He has not let his power and glory go to his head.

An old seminary instructor used to tell his students, "Mortify yourself, mortify yourself." You can consciously do it.

But it is best to do it when the opportunity arises. Opportunities will certainly arise. You do not have to be like the Flagellites who walked around in public and had others beat them with whips.