Humility is an interesting trait.

About the time you think you’ve got it, you don’t have it anymore.  After all, if you’re humble, you don’t think of yourself as possessing humility.  You just are…humble.  It’s who you are.  It’s how you respond to situations.

Now humility does not mean you are void of drive and ambition.  You can be humble and have a lot of ambition.  The difference is not in the ambition but in the motivation.  It comes down to why you’re doing what you’re doing.

As Christians, we have to deal with this humility “thing”.  We have to make sure we’re imitating Christ and growing in a trait that we’ll probably never know we have.

But others around us most definitely will know whether or not we have it.

In our ongoing walk through the New Testament book of Philippians, we read in Philippians 2:5-11:

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! ⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11, NIV

These verses contain such rich volumes of theology capable of rocking our lives.  But we’re going see these verses through a telescope and not a microscope.

And by zooming out and seeing the totality of these verses we find something pretty amazing: an illustration of how to live in harmony with other people resulting in a blessing from God.  And it is found in the difficult lesson of humility.

Jesus: The Son of God, The Heir of Heaven’s Throne, The Architect of the Universe, The Second Member of the Triune God…traded His crown of glory for a crown of thorns.  He traded the thunderous roar of the angels in Heaven for the thundering roar of “Crucify Him!”.  He traded immortality and limitless power to be wrapped in flesh and have to be held by His Earthly parents, Joseph and Mary.

Now, what are we so proud of in our lives?  What have we accomplished that even comes close to comparing to THAT?

Nothing.

This is why Scripture can unequivocally state: “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5b).

Humility comes easier when we compare ourselves to Someone Who truly has the right to brag about what they’ve done.  Jesus saved the world by giving His own life and then picked that life back up and walked away from death with a laugh.  What have we done?

So, dear one in Jesus: “Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth”, Proverbs 27:2 (NIV) states, “an outsider, and not your own lips.”

Let yourself discover humility and find the blessing of being like Jesus.