PRISONER EXPRESS

Humbleness is tricky. You can't receive an award for being humble: what would you do with it? Frame it and place it over the fireplace? Probably not. As I pondered this quality that God places such value upon, I began to learn what true humility means.

I read in the ninth chapter of Hebrews that behind the second veil in the temple there is a place called the Holiest of All. Among the articles contained there was Aaron's walking stick. This wasn't just a notable staff because it was Aaron's walking stick, but also because it budded. I thought to myself, a walking stick budded? Budded what? Using my trusty Thompson Chain-Reference Study Bible, I traced this relic back to Numbers 17:8. There it says that Aaron's rod "budded almonds." Hmm, I thought, if I had a walking stick that budded almonds, I would have a very difficult time being humble. Everyone else was eating manna, but Aaron had a stick budding with delicious nuts. I researched manna to discover what it was and the Hebrew word means, literally, "What is it?" So, while everyone is eating "what is it?" I'd be having manna ala almonds! I would hire a guy with one of those pepper grinders filled with almonds to stand by and give my manna an occasional light sprinkling of almonds. Ahhh, perfection! Of course, I'd be sitting there, proudly, holding my staff while wearing a big fedora and wrap-around sunglasses. Yea, humble would not have been easy for me.

Days after my research into this subject I was watching a television program and God began to minister to me further on the subject of humility. On the television, there was a bear in a stream and he was catching fish. I have hands, with opposing thumbs, obviously, this quirk is supposedly the aspect of my physiology that gives me such a great advantage over animals, but I can't catch fish--with nothing but paws! For me to catch a fish, I need a twelve thousand dollar boat and a twenty-five thousand dollar truck (gun rack optional) to get my boat to the water. On the way to the water, I need to stop at the bait and tackle shop to fill my twenty-five dollar Coleman cooler with two dollars worth of ice, and fifteen dollars worth of snacks and sodas. And it is all so that I can go catch a three dollar fish. Yet, here is a bear doing the same thing with nothing more than his paws. Something about this seems...humbling.

I lay in my bunk thinking about all this and I think of the humble Spirit in which Jesus went to the cross and shed His blood. Only in a humble spirit can I receive His spirit and learn His will for my life. I realized that only in humility, and His grace, leads to Life. That, my friend, is humbling.