Humble Yourself

Humility is one of those difficult concepts in Christianity. Do you know the classic story of the church deacon who was given a blue ribbon for being humble? The problem was they had to take it away from him for wearing it.

Pastors love to tell that story, but the truth is, it misses the point about what humility truly is. If you’re humble, you can say you’re humble. Jesus did. When he said, “Let me teach you because I am humble” (Matt. 11:29 NLT), he wasn’t bragging. He was acknowledging the truth of the situation.

Jesus was bold in his humility. For him, humility wasn’t weakly pretending that he didn’t have the most important things in the world to teach his disciples. Humility isn’t denying the truth; it’s denying yourself. Humility is revolving yourself around others instead of having them revolve around you.

It’s important to accurately understand humility because it can be difficult in high-functioning leadership. On one end of the spectrum, you have leaders who are bashful about leading for fear of appearing prideful, and on the other, you have narcissistic leaders who make the whole organization about themselves. If you’re the former, you probably aren’t getting much done. If you’re the latter, there’s a real problem and a huge potential for burnout (not to mention moral failures).

If ever there was a leader who could develop narcissistic tendencies, it would be Jesus. He performed miracles that baffled the world. He had thousands following him. People went to their death for Jesus. Yet he was humble. How?

Jesus always served his disciples in a greater way than they served him. Yes, they did the tasks Jesus told them to do. But Jesus always humbled himself to a position of a servant for them. He showed that every part of the organization—his ministry—mattered.

Humbling yourself in a way that leads to long-term, high-capacity leadership is choosing to revolve your life around others. It follows Paul’s advice in Philippians 2:4—“not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (NIV).

Humbling yourself means refusing to sacrifice individuals on the altar of the organizational vision. It means directing, correcting, firing, and promoting from a place of love and genuine interest in the value of others, not seeing them just as tools of the organization.

God exalted Jesus for his humility, and that promise of exaltation is made to us as well. When we adopt the same attitude of humility and service that Jesus had, God lifts us up. We don’t have to worry about showing others how great we are; we can trust God to take care of what needs to happen on our behalf.