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This is the Way

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7

These verses from Peter are words that are central to my relationship with Jesus. However, I didn’t choose them. I was in my first semester at seminary, struggling with going from being a salaried teacher to a broke student, and God hit me with them. In the years since, when I’ve faced struggle, frustration and pain, God has repeatedly brought me back to this passage as a reminder to swallow my pride and press on in whatever I was facing and often did not want to do. They have never lost their relevance, so I guess they are now mine for keeps.

The thing about these two verses are the lines that go before them. The opening five verses in this chapter address a problem in the early church that we too often face: relationship woes. Leaders in the early church dealt with elders in the church domineering and acting in self-interest, lording themselves over the flock, and younger ones refusing to respect the authority of those who had been given it and refusing to be willing to learn. Peter corrects them in different ways, but the lesson that applies to all is humility (vv. 5b-6).

Like so much of the Christian life, we don’t learn humility in a vacuum. We don’t learn it behind thick walls that refuse to let people in. We learn humility in the context of ‘showing up’ with other people where the proverbial rubber meets the road. It might be in saying “sorry” to those we’ve wronged (even if their wrong was worse). It might be checking ourselves for our arguments or posts shared on social media that defend our point of view and make a straw man out of the opinion of others. It might be when we admit that our spouse’s complaints are justified, and that our relationship might need professional help. As pride is the root of all sin, so humility is the foundation of all that is good and holy.

For by surrendering ourselves, our pride, our ego, our expectations and demands, we discover a God who lifts us up, a God who raises us up, in His timing, to embrace a life that is truly lived for Him. It doesn’t make sense, it seems foolish, even naïve, but to borrow from the wonderful series The Mandalorian, “This is the way.” It is the way of God, it is the way of our Lord and it is the way of the cross.
The Rev. Dr. Suse E. McBay, Ph.D.
Associate for Christian Education, Prayer Ministries and the Riverway
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