“Sir,” he gasped, “surely you do not polish your own shoes!”
“Of course,” replied the humble President. “Whose do you polish?”
An old Filipino saying goes: “The higher the bamboo grows, the lower it bends.”
All of this is manifested in the life of Jesus. In Matthew 20:28 (KJV), we read, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Did you know the highest title in God’s church is “servant?” A Christian has to be willing to serve as Jesus did? None of us can die to save them as Jesus did, but we can serve our fellowman in the greatest way possible.
In three places in the Scripture, we are told to “humble yourselves.” In Jeremiah 13:18 (KJV), God instructs the prophet, “Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.” Note that it especially speaks to the king and queen.
Then in the New Testament, James, in Chapter 4, verse 10 (KJV), says “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
And even headstrong Peter says in 1 Peter 5:6 (KJV), “ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time ...”
The only way God will give grace to grow into maturity is “to humble oneself.”
“Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits” (Rom 12:16 KJV).
So how tall are you? Tall and flexible enough to serve people in all kinds of situations? Whose shoes do you polish?
Humility is one thing almost impossible to counterfeit. A man can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility. Mock humility will soon be detected.
A man sitting next to an outstanding world leader at once began to voice how humble he felt in her presence. Suddenly she turned to him and said, “Don’t be so humble. You’re not that great.”
F.B. Meyer once said: “I used to think that God’s gifts were on shelves one above the other, and that the taller we grew in Christian character the easier we could reach them. I now find that God’s gifts are on shelves one beneath the other. It is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower; that we have to go down, always down, to get His best gifts.”
—Bible Illustrator
