Essential Faith: Spiritually Surviving the Second WaveSample

Essential humility

Sometimes I hate how clear the Bible is.

The apostle Paul once wrote, “Do everything without grumbling or arguing” (Philippians 2:14). Shoot. You don’t need a Bible college degree to get that one. “Everything” is all-inclusive, covering masks and mandates and all the COVID detours we wish we didn’t have to take. “Without” is easy to understand, and “grumbling” isn’t some obscure Greek word that has been lost in translation.

Paul’s command isn’t easy, but it is absolutely clear.

But then the thought hit me—Paul wrote that verse from jail. Philippians is one of his “prison letters,” the four New Testament books that he penned while under house arrest in Rome. And Paul didn’t even get to Rome until he had spent years under arrest for a supposed crime he didn’t even commit.

Years!

Some of us are struggling after months of uncertainty, but Paul was stuck in a legal mess for years (Philippians 1). Yet, in this same letter (Philippians 4), Paul gushes about his joy and peace and contentment, his ability to rejoice no matter what happened or how long it lasted. The contrast between Paul’s attitude in Philippians chapter 4 and Paul’s context in Philippians chapter 1 is almost hard to believe.

How could that be? And what can we learn from it? 

I would suggest that Paul had an essential element of joy—humility. Paul knew, even quarantined in Rome, that his life was better than he deserved. Despite wasting a good chunk of his life trying to earn God’s acceptance and despite opposing the cross of Christ, Jesus saved Paul. Jesus made Paul right with God. Jesus gave Paul a way to live in God’s presence, even in a jail cell far from home. Paul didn’t deserve any of that, but Jesus gave him all of that.

Despite the sins of his past, Paul got God.

What a good reminder for us. When we proudly think that we deserve an easier life—a pain-free, pandemic-free, inconvenience-free life; a life with complication-free school years, work conferences, and family weddings—we grumble and complain our way through our days. We assume that those simpler days of 2019 are what we should be guaranteed to get.

But when we humbly remember that we are simply sinners who deserve nothing from God’s hand, our hearts shift. And when we remember that Jesus is holding out in his pierced hands grace and mercy in massive quantities, our hearts start to smile. And when we recall that God is with us, even during our isolation, our hearts begin to rejoice.

Even now.

If grumbling has infected your heart this week, choose the path of Paul. Remember who you’ve been, where you’ve been, what you’ve said, and how often you’ve sinned. Then compare your list of sins to everything you have through Jesus—his love, his grace, his patience, his Spirit, his attention, his Father, his eternal home.

That humility just turns into pandemic-proof joy.