Our chaplain is still indisposed, and I was asked to deliver the chapel devotional at school again this Thursday, 9 November 2023.  I put together a short devotional on humility.

Here is the devotional I wrote, with a huge debt of gratitude to The Daily Encouraging Word, which I substantially adapted and modified for this lesson:

We have so much to be proud about here at [our school].  We are a school of champions, in every field:  academics, athletics, and the arts.  We boast about our accomplishments, our triumphs, and our victories.  We are Titans, and we are mighty!

In our pride, however, let us remember the Source of all of our holy and good accomplishments—Jesus Christ.  Without Christ, there would be no knowledge worth gaining, no game worth winning, and no art worth creating.  We may be the conduits for these achievements, but Christ Is the Source of them.

Today’s lesson comes from Luke 18:9-14, in which Jesus Relates a parable about pride (New Living Translation):

^9 “Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: ¹⁰ ‘Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: “I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! ¹² I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.”

¹³ ‘But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, “O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.” ¹⁴ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’”

The Word of the Lord—Thanks Be to God!  Let us pray.

When Jesus Talks about pride here, He means what we might call “boasting,” or think of as a form of spiritual pride.  It is when we believe that everything we have done is due to our own merits, and that we are therefore more excellent than others, that we fall into this trap of boastful, spiritual pride.

Consider my opening claim:  Christ Is the Source of all holy and good things.  To the extent that we are capable of achieving anything that is holy and good, we do so only thanks to the abundant grace of Jesus Christ.

Here is why this point is so crucial:  if we humble ourselves before Christ and Thank Him for our triumphs—and our tribulations—we are not puffing ourselves up.  We are practicing humility, and humility humanizes our fellow man.  When we recognize and acknowledge Christ as the Source of our victories, we retain the ability to relate to those who are at different points in their never-ending learning and growing.  We celebrate success without worshipping ourselves.

Put another way, James tells us in James 4:6 that “God opposes the proud/but gives grace to the humble.”

The ultimate victory is victory in Jesus.  To achieve that victory, we must humble ourselves before Him.