Humility can be a dirty word.

Or if not a dirty word, it can be a word that we don’t like or aren’t really fond of.  When we think of humility, we aren’t really sure what it means to be humble.  The one thing we may think about humility is this.

We are supposed to think that we don’t matter. We are supposed to think that we are unimportant. We are supposed to think that we have no great value.

That is not right. That is not humility.

You do matter.  You are important.  You are of great worth.

Humility is not beating up on yourself.  Humility is not putting down on yourself.  Humility is not about debasing yourself of thinking yourself worthless.

I had a professor in seminary that used to put it this way – “Humility is self-forgetfulness.”  It’s not about beating yourself up. It’s about forgetting about yourself and thinking of others first.

Listen to what Paul writes in Philippians today:

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

Paul says, think about others first. Think of their needs. Their of their feelings. Think of them before we think of ourselves.

We forget about ourselves and focus on them.  How we can help others.  Love others. Serve others.

Why?

Why should we do that? Why are we called to do that.

Well, as Christians, we are called to seek to be like Christ.  To know Him. To love Him. And to love others as He did.  And listen as Paul continues, to what Jesus did:

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Jesus was humble.  Jesus came not for Himself, but for us. And as Christians, He calls us not to live just for ourselves, but to live for others.

Because in a life of humility, a life of service, a life of giving ourselves away for His sake, we find more life that we’ll ever find in living for ourselves.

Yes, we are called to be humble.  No humility is not what we’ve always thought that is was.  Humility is about forgetting about ourselves and focusing on others.

Today, and each day, may we be humble.