Friends in Christ Weekly Message
August 28, 2010

What I'm saying is, If you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face. But if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.
Luke 14:11 (Message*)

This translation of the passage is interesting because it uses a physical analogy which is fairly obviously true. But you don't have to literally have your nose in the air to fall. We read frequently of people who have risen up high in some field of endeavor, and fall after thinking they can get away with things that regular people can't. It seems to work for a while, and then it comes crashing down.

In contrast, if we don't try to be anything more than we really are, we open ourselves up to real growth. Often it's very modest and unassuming people who really achieve much.

In the end, it comes down to our position relative to God's. When we exalt ourselves, in the language that other translations use in this passage, we wind up trying to play God in some way. This will never work, because it is not our place in the universe. But if we accept who we are and who God is, we place ourselves into partnership with God, through whom we can do anything. Humility is actually very practical.

Bill Samuel

* The Message version ©1993-2002 by Eugene H. Peterson.

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