Humility is Freeing.
I worked at a creosoting plant during the summers while in High School. I often was sent out to load pickup trucks. People would come in to purchase fence posts and lumber, and my job was to load the trucks. I learned something about men that summer. With men there is some sort of pride involved in their pickup trucks. They somehow connected their pickup’s load capacity with their own strength. After spending day after day loading pickups I had a good idea how much most trucks could really carry. Yet the problem was that I looked way too young to be giving advice to grown men about their pickup trucks.
One afternoon a couple of guys come in and wanted to purchase 10 brand new railroad ties. I asked what kind of truck they were in. He pointed to a half ton Chevy parked outside. I told him it would be best to purchase 5 now and come back for 5 more because 10 would exceed his truck’s capacity. He said all 10 would fit. I agreed but pointed out that each tie weighs 205 pounds and 10 would weigh one ton. (One ton being twice the weight capacity of his truck) I said you could probably get as many as 6 or 7 but 10 would be too many, so you might as well make two equal trips.
Well, by his reaction you would have thought I said something really tacky. When he finished telling me why his truck could carry more, I said, “let’s go load your truck and you can say when it has enough weight on it.” He drove around back, and I loaded 4 ties on his truck. He was looking quite confident, but when I put the 5th tie on his truck it sank down in the back. I asked him, “do you want 5 more or do you want to make a second trip?” He said, “I think two trips”.
What is truly funny is that his truck was fully loaded. I mean it was carrying a full load. He had 1,000 pounds on a truck rated to carry 1,000 pounds. Trust me, I loaded it and it was heavy. Yet you could tell he felt sad, but he had nothing to be sad about. His truck was carrying all it could.
I believe that this same thing happens in our lives. We overload our lives with expectations about what we can carry in our jobs, our families, and our religious lives. When we notice the overload we tend to sacrifice one for the other. That is, we toss part of the load off of our truck. As the time crunch happens something must go. In seminary I noticed that often the younger students would start to skip Chapel services right about the time midterms started. For me, it was not that I had all of my work done, but when it came time to choose worship or homework, I chose worship—even when that last bit of homework could have meant the difference between making a B or an A.
The reason I was able to make that choice was that at one point in my life I chose work over family. At that same time I chose work over worship. You see, my pride never let me admit before that I did not have the capacity to get it all done. So I let the things slide that I thought no one would notice. The irony is that I let the most important things in life slide.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. (Romans 12:1-3)
Rev Patrick Evans
http://pastorpatscorner.blogspot.com
