Humility is one of my favorite words. I know that some would assert that I'm not that humble. But I think the reality is that on most days I'm just pretty comfortable in my own skin. I know it's not skinny enough and probably not handsome enough for some...but what else do I have to work with?
Humility is a magical, "stellar" word. It comes from a Latin root word relating to "humus" or earth. So being humble is being earthy or dirt-like. And dirt itself is pretty special stuff. Far from mundane, it's matter that was fired and fused in the furnaces of stars billions of years ago. So dirt, even on our back water planet is literally "star dust."
Scripture maintains that God made us from this earth, this "star dust." Genesis 2:7 tells us, "...then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being."
The Biblical word for "the man" in Hebrew is Adam, which is a derivative of the word adam'ah which is the Hebrew word for "dirt." So Adam as we call the first human isn't a proper name like Nathan or Erin or Dennis or some such. Rather it's best translation might simply be "earth creature."
All this is to say that connecting with our humility is simply connecting with our humanity. It's realizing that we are on the one hand NOT God, and on the other the stuff of stars. Being humble is about being human -- no less and no more than we are created to be. Living from this center and awareness is how we are (no pun intended) grounded in life. Isnt' that beautiful?
This then is the power we have, if we have it, to serve each other without caring whether or not someone else mistakes us for being the gardner. You see, in the kingdom of God, there's no higher calling than the one who works and cleans up the dirt.
And that is something to ponder as we go about our lives collecting degrees, accolades, and attention.
May you be connected to the source of your life (God) and grounded in the reality of your being (dirt) and as you exist between heaven and earth, may you find that the living currents and energies of life flow between those points of being, and in them, you are indeed humble.
Go get dirty!
Pastor Nathan
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2 comments:
Pastor,
I love this post and the picture is incredible. Genesis can be a confusing book because of the dual story line. Focusing on the dirt helps me see the importance symbolically of both the name and the substance of man.
Anita
Life and our place in it is all about perspective isn't it? We need to understand our created place and that though we aren't God...we are uniquely beautiful and created for the purposes of creating more beauty.
When we discover this calling and perspective, life becomes a thing of beauty itself.
Le Chaim!
PN
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