Upsidedown

Humble yourselves before the Lord,

and He will lift you up.

James 4:10

The upsidedown principle that guides a godly life is so counter-intuitive. We struggle to believe in God's design of cause-and-effect:  death leads to life, sacrifice produces joy, generosity brings abundance, godly dependence produces greater freedom, obedience not ambition gives birth to authority, the Cross not an insurrection establishes a new King, and humility leads to exaltation (James 4:10).

For many years I assumed that the real challenge in James 4:10 was the initial command.  My emphaisis was only on becoming humble before God, emptying myself as an expression of dependence on Him.  So I went to work on that and felt rather pleased with myself.  A day turned into a week, and  a week became a month.  And that led to a year which evolved into decades.

Time should draw us closer to God.  But if we have wrong motivations for humbling ourselves before Him, time can also produce resentment.  We presume upon God our desired outcomes for such a long stretch of humility and obedience which is always a dangerous place to get stuck. Sometimes we miss God's goodness for our lives because we are stubbornly loyal to our version of goodness rather than His.  It is at that moment that we discover something very important. The initial command in James 4:10 is NOT the most challenging part.  It is the promise that follows - He will lift (exalt) you up.

Being content with God's version of our exaltation is more difficult than humbling ourselves before Him. We do not get to write the script of our reward.  And this is ultimately more of a deterrent for us than being dependent on Him.  You and I can muster up the courage to purge ourselves of the things of this world, transferrring our dependence on Him, as long as He allows us to negotiate the fruits we will enjoy in this world and the next.  But God allows no such thing, and we loathe the idea of not being able to negotiate our reward.  The mere idea stirs anger in us. Perhaps the greatest expression of humility is not bowing to God but trusting Him with the resulting exaltation He promised.

Ex nihilo,


R.J. Rhoden