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I’ve never climbed Mt. Hood in Oregon, but I’ve been on peaks that are higher. When we first moved to Colorado back in 1999 there was a different sign here. The sign read, “Elevation 12,005 feet. Higher than Oregon’s famed Mt. Hood.” I have a feeling someone from Oregon stole it.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Sometimes our Christian walk is characterized by trying to be better than other Christians. As a pastor, I have tendency to compare myself to other pastors and so I sing the old Christian song, “Chief of sinners though I be, Pastor So-and-so is worse than me.”

“Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude.” 1 Peter 3:8 New Living Translation

Humility is not about saying how bad I am or that I don’t do anything important. Humility is the recognition that in the body of Christ I don’t possess all the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Humility recognizes that I am important in the body of Christ, and, as a result of my baptism into Christ, that I have received gifts of grace to be used in the community of saints and in the world.

Humility also recognizes that I don’t possess all the gifts of God and therefore I am dependent on the gifting of others in the body of Christ.

The result of such humility is not bragging or self ridicule. Instead this kind of humility celebrates the organic unity of Christ’s body.

Godly humility has the ability to lift us higher than we’ve ever experienced.

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner