more from new orleans...

It is incredibly difficult to become humble.

It isn't like you can wake up one morning and decide that you want to be. Humility is a positive trait, and if you are aware of your positive traits you tend to be less humble (stick with me, it won't always be that confusing). I've been reading "My Utmost for His Highest" and one topic in particular caught my attention: the assertion that the best characteristic qualities of a Christian are not products of said Christian's own effort. In fact, Chambers makes the argument that only when a quality (such as humility) is unconscious is it most effective.

"...if it is conscious it ceases to have this unaffected loveliness which is the characteristic of the touch of Jesus."

My first reaction was against this particular entry (I think it was the context of the whole thing that did that). Now that I've rolled it over in my mind for awhile I think I'm more inclined to agree--you will probably find it very difficult to become like Jesus when you're making every effort to do so. During my short stay in NOLA I came across people who had no idea they exhibited (quite powerfully) the characteristics of Christ. If Christianity is more about the heart than about the law, why is it so easy to forget that we are entirely powerless to change our own hearts? That change comes from surrendering everything you are and everything you do. That "unaffected loveliness," that certain presence of grace in a person is what is supposed to make Christians so easily distinguishable. When you are truly touched by Jesus, you unconsciously develop a "poverty of spirit" because you begin to recognize that there really is nothing about you that is good, apart from the work of God in you. Humble people probably don't realize they're humble at all.

The people who impress me the most with certain qualities very rarely realize they are doing it. The things I love most about them are the things that they do without thinking about it. I am impressed by them because they ARE those things, not because they PRACTICE those things. I don't remember ever aspiring to be someone who tries really hard. I aspire to be someone who doesn't need to.