It's Hard to Be Humble
Good will and good faith do not describe the world's systems, structures, and patterns. But they do describe a called-out people set apart for God. It falls to the Church to walk in the light, to shine light, to salt and leaven culture. To be a pleasing aroma that comes with knowing God.
When you're perfect in every way 🎶
— Mac Davis
Our world faces significant challenges. It always has, but to our generation, it feels like life is edging towards someone's dystopian imagination, the way Science Fiction can become Nonfiction. We see the problems, but we seem incapable of facing them. This is an education problem.
Our culture and our schools have taught us that we learn in order to master our world. We subdue it and bend it to our wills. All the while, we paper over any uncertainty by projecting confidence.
Before The Fall, God did instruct mankind to subdue the earth, to take dominion over it. At that time, humans walked with God in the cool of the day. They hadn't yet eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to "be like God." They knew God as a friend and companion. An exalted one who is infinitely other, but a friend.
Our God and Father didn't intend for us to subjugate the world to our own wills, but to order it by his. Good knowing isn't mastery, it's exploration. It's organizing life around what is real. As we discover the real. As the real is revealed to us. Esther Meek says, all knowing is coming to know. With partial knowledge, people of good will and good faith, can make mistakes. And they can make corrections, because what is true is more important than what is convenient.
Good will and good faith do not describe the world's systems, structures, and patterns. But they do describe a called-out people set apart for God. It falls to the Church to walk in the light, to shine light, to salt and leaven culture. To be a pleasing aroma that comes with knowing God.
Can we face our problems?
Can we surrender our "like God" pride, the arrogance of Babel, to discern and grow in our understanding?
Can we, in Christ, return to our walks with God in the cool of the day?
And can we exchange our façade of self-confidence for a robust confidence in God's sovereignty over all things?
And he said to the human race,
“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.”
Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
This is the way to approach problems like climate, disease, conflict, oppression, exploitation, and poverty. Apart from God, where will confident leaders confidently lead? I suspect we know.
It's hard to be humble. But flourishing lies in that direction.