Bruised Reeds…
There a couple things on my mind today…
First, this quote from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. When nerdy pastors like me get together to talk about preachers, there is a certain hush that comes over us when we talk about DML-J. With great reverence, we simply call him, ‘The Doctor.’ He was one of the finest, ever.
Meekness denotes a humble and gentle attitude to others which is determined by a true estimate of ourselves… It is comparatively easy to be honest with ourselves before God and acknowledge ourselves to be sinners in his sight…. But how much more difficult it is to allow other people to say things like that about me! I instinctively resent it. We all of us prefer to condemn ourselves than to allow somebody else to condemn us.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The Doctor puts it well and cuts to the heart of why this particular notion that ‘it will go well with the meek…’ is troubling and challenging for those who would follow Jesus. I’m looking forward to talking with you about it on Sunday and hearing how you wrestle with it in small groups this week.
Secondly, I’m thinking about our parish meeting on Tuesday at 7:30pm. We do these 3 times a year in order to keep everyone who is interested in Restoration informed about finances, facility, and future (they don’t always all start with ‘f’). 2010 was a great year. We are about to start some small renovations. And a third Sunday service is on the way. Come hear details, ask your questions, and offer your feedback on Tuesday night. We’ll have you out of there in an hour.
January 29, 2011 @ 5:46 pm
I’ve always found it hard to view myself with sober judgment. I either tend to be too hard on my self or too soft on myself.
January 30, 2011 @ 8:42 pm
“We all of us prefer to condemn ourselves than to allow somebody else to condemn us.”
Wow, does that hit close to home or what? My soul shivers at the thought–because it’s so true. If I acknowledge my weaknesses to others (cue self-deprecation) then the sting is diffused of folks, especially folks I love and value, pointing out my short-comings. Or so my deluded self-preservation hopes.
January 31, 2011 @ 7:39 am
Yesterday, Someone asked me after the 9am a very insightful question– “What’s the difference between meekness and humility?”
I think they are very similar, maybe best to imagine them on a continuum of inward focus to outward focus. In my usage, humility shifts to the inward end and meekness shifts to the outward end. So, in the same way purple is red with a bit of blue and orange is red with a bit of yellow. Meekness and humility are cut from the same cloth of ‘not thinking more highly of yourself than you ought” with a little outward or inward thrown in. Meekness has a sense of allowing other people to see you ‘not think more highly of yourself than you ought’, while humility has more of an internal ‘character’ check.
Either way, being meek and being humble are places to which I am constantly returning for more refinement and transformation. not easy.
February 1, 2011 @ 9:52 am
This reminds me of David’s comment a while back that humility is an elusive virtue — it has to come as a product of something else, we cannot directly work on it.