DUMPSTER Tink Humbly - Philippians 2:8
Story
Alex Haley, the author of Roots, had a picture in his office showing a turtle sitting atop a fence. The picture was there to remind him of a lesson he learned long ago: If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he had some help.
And Alex Hley would say, “Any time I start thinking, Wow, isn’t this marvelous what I’ve done! I look at that picture and remember how this turtle—me—got up on that post.”
—Philip B. Osborn
Martin Luther is credited with the following interesting story: Two mountain goats met each other on a narrow ledge just wide enough for one of the animals. On the left was a sheer cliff, and on the right a deep lake. The two face each other. What should they do? They could not back up—that would be too dangerous; they could not turn around, because the ledge was too narrow. Now if the goats had no more sense than some people, they would meet head-on and start butting each other till they fell into the lake below. Luther said that goats have better sense than this. One lay down on the trail and let the other literally walk over him—and both were safe.
Humility is unconscious self-forgetfulness.
—W. H. Griffith Thomas
POINTS
I used to think that God’s gifts were on shelves one above the other; and that the taller we grew in Christian character, the easier we could reach them. I now find that God’s gifts are on shelves one beneath the other; and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower; and that we have to go down, always down, to get His best gifts.
—F. B. Meyer
• True humility is not to think low of oneself but to think rightly, truthfully of oneself.
A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am receiving.
—Einstein
• It is possible to be too big for God to use you but never too small for God to use you.
Second street is the first street in America. According to R. L. Polk & Co., publishers of city directories, Second Street is the most common street name in this country. Park Street is in second place. Third Street is third, Fourth is fourth, Fifth is fifth, Main is sixth. First Street?—it’s seventh.
Humility is the ability to act ashamed when you tell people how wonderful you are.
—Lee Liechansky
• A famous conductor was once asked which instrument he considered the most difficult to play. His reply: “Second fiddle.”*
Humility is not denying the power you have. It is realizing that the power comes through you, not from you.
—Fred Smith
The humble person does not take offense or fight back. He turns the other cheek to the one who hits him. And yet humility is not cowardice, for humility requires high courage. Humility makes you willing to take a lower place than you deserve, to keep quiet about your merits, to bear slights, insults, and false accusations for a higher purpose. Jesus displayed humility for “when He was reviled, [He] did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten.”
—John Haggai
Humility is not thinking less of yourself than you are. Nor is humility always talking about your faults and shortcomings as compared with everyone else’s superiority and achievements. Humility is simply a recognition of the truth about ourselves; and then most often, a forgetfulness of self that allows genuine concern for others and a genuine worship of God.
—S. Craig Glickman
Moses spent forty years thinking he was somebody; then he spent forty years on the back side of the desert realizing he was nobody; finally, he spent the last forty years of his life learning what God can do with a nobody!
—D. L. Moody
Humility is not depreciation of ourselves, but appreciation of God.
A man can counterfeit hope, love, faith, and many other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility.
God has two thrones, one in the highest heavens, the other in the lowliest heart.
—D. L. Moody
Sammy Morris, a devoted Christian from Africa, came to America to go to school. Although his pathway to service for Christ was not easy, his difficulties never deterred him. Perhaps this was because he had learned genuine humility. One incident that showed this occurred when he arrived at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. He was asked by the school’s president what room he wanted. Sammy replied, “If there is a room nobody wants, give it to me.” Later the president commented, “I turned away, for my eyes were full of tears. I was asking myself whether I was willing to take what nobody else wanted.”
—Our Daily Bread
Near the entrance to a large hospital in the eastern United States there stands a white marble statue of Christ. On its base are engraved the words, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” One day a cynical man walked around the statue, viewing it disapprovingly from every angle. A small girl stood and watched him for a time and then she said, “Oh, sir, you cannot see Him that way. You must get very close and fall upon your knees and look up.”
Humility is a bag into which Christ puts the riches of His grace. The one infallible test of our holiness will be the humility before God and men which marks us. Humility is the bloom and the beauty of holiness. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility.
—Andrew Murray
I Am Clay
“I am clay,” wrote Missionary author Elisabeth Elliot as she mused over Isaiah 59:9–11, the passage that pictures us as vessels in the Potter’s hand. “The word humble comes from the root word humus, earth, clay,” she wrote.
Apostle Paul in regard to his self-assessment:
• I am the least of the apostles—1 Corinthians 15:9
• [I am] the least of all the saints—Ephesians 3:8
• [I am] the chief of sinners—1 Timothy 1:15*
On one occasion Samuel Brengle, longtime revered leader of the Salvation Army, was introduced as “the great Dr. Brengle.” In his diary he wrote:
“If I appear great in their eyes, the Lord is most graciously helping me to see how absolutely nothing I am without Him, and helping me to keep little in my own eyes. He does use me. But I am so concerned that He uses me and that it is not of me the work is done. The axe cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it, and he used it. The moment he throws it aside, it becomes only old iron. O that I may never lose sight of this.”*
I used to think that God’s gifts were on shelves one above the other; and that the taller we grew in Christian character, the easier we could reach them. I now find that God’s gifts are on shelves one beneath the other; and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower; and that we have to go down, always down, to get His best gifts.
—F. B. Meyer
• Humility does not consist simply in thinking cheaply of oneself, so much as in not thinking of oneself at all—and of Christ more and more.—Keith Brooks
The more humble a man is in himself, and the more obedient towards God, the wiser will he be in all things, and the more shall his soul be at peace.—Thomas à Kempis
Should you ask me: What is the first thing in religion? I should reply: the first, second, and third thing therein is humility.—Augustine
Let it be repeated, there are two views of one’s life. One is that a man’s life is his own, to do with as he [or she] pleases; the other is that it belongs to another and … that the other to whom it belongs is Christ Himself.
—John R. Mott
• We take pride in birth and rank, but it’s said of Jesus, He was a carpenter’s son.
• We take pride in possessions, but it’s said of Jesus, “The Son of man hath no place to lay His head.”
• We take pride in our respectability, but it’s said of Jesus, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
• We take pride in our personal appearance, but it’s said of Jesus, “He hath no form nor comeliness.”
• We take pride in our reputation, but it’s said of Jesus, “Behold a man gluttonous and a winebibber.”
• We take pride in our friendships, but it’s said of Jesus, “He was a friend of publicans and sinners.”
• We take pride in our independence, but Jesus gave himself to people and had the woman at the well draw water for him.
• We take pride in our degrees and learning, but Jesus never went to college and it’s said of Him, “How knows this man letters having never learned to read?”
• We take pride in our position, but Jesus said, “I am among you as one who serves.”
• We take pride in our success, but it’s said of Jesus, “His own did not receive Him or believe on Him. He was despised and rejected.”
• We take pride in our self-reliance, but it’s said of Jesus, “He went down to Nazareth and was subject to His parents.”
• We take pride in our abilities, but Jesus said, “I can of mine own self do nothing.”
• We take pride in our self-will, but Jesus said, “I seek not my own will but the Father’s.” And “If thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.”
• We take pride in our intellect, but Jesus said, “As the Father has taught me, I speak these things.”
• We take pride in our resentment and justifiable pride, but Jesus said, “Father, forgive them.”
• We take pride in our holiness, but it’s said of Jesus, “He receiveth sinners and eateth with them.”
• We take pride in the fact we’re the righteousness of God, but it’s said of Jesus, “He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”*
Who flies the kite? I, said the boy. I fly the kite. It is my joy. I fly the kite.
Who flies the kite? I, said the wind. I fly the kite. It is my whim. I fly the kite.
Who flies the kite? I, said the string. I’m the thing that flies the kite.
Who flies the kite? I, said the tail. I made the sail. I fly the kite.
Who flies the kite? All are wrong—all are right. All fly the kite!
Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is for me to have no trouble; never to be fretted or vexed or irritated or sore or disappointed. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret and be at peace as in a deep sea of calmness when all around is trouble. It is the fruit of the Lord Jesus Christ’s redemptive work on Calvary’s cross, manifested in those of His own who are definitely subject to the Holy Spirit.
—Andrew Murray
The humble man feels no jealousy or envy. He can praise God when others are preferred and blessed before him. He can bear to hear others praised while he is forgotten because … he has received the spirit of Jesus, who pleased not Himself, and who sought not His own honor.
Therefore, in putting on the Lord Jesus Christ he has put on the heart of compassion, kindness, meekness, longsuffering, and humility.
—Andrew Murray