So I have an experiment for you. Its pretty simple and it'll really help us get to the next step of this humility thing. Sort of a demonstration.
Go somewhere where there are people.
Like a street bench or mall... or arrive to work early before anyone
else gets there and sit by the front door. Anywhere that you could
see a bunch of people walk by for an half hour or so.
And then say something positive to
every single person that walks by.
Keep it about yourself. Statements like
“I really like those boots.” or “I want you to know that you
make me smile everyday.” or something like that. Avoid saying
“You...” this or “you ...” that.
You will quickly learn several things.
The first thing you will learn is that people think you are crazy.
This is a sad symptom of a very serious disease common to our
society.
But you will also notice that the ones
that don't like your comments are generally the people who let their
pride respond. Remember how I said that pride is enmity? It responds
to images of itself? This is the reality.
But if you're getting the hang of these
kind of self-less positive compliments, then people will start to
either respond with confusion or with a similar positivity. This is
because you are sidestepping their defenses an pride and actually
connecting with them. You're actually teaching some people that its
okay to have a connection with another human being.
No one gets treated like a human being
enough nowadays
You'll also start to feel better about
yourself. You might actually start having a good rest of the day
because of this little exercise. Its a funny kind of thing. I know
its just baby steps at this point, but that selfless serving of
others is like a special medicine. What happens is that we get it
confused with trying to “save” people.
In order to see what's happening here,
I'm going to have to dispel another part of this “box” that keeps
us slaves. It concerns how we perceive God. Generally people see God
in one of two ways. Christians and most atheists or agnostics see God
as a personal “being”, much like we are beings since we're made
in his image, that is separate from the universe. He existed, then He
made the universe, then from time to time He “intervenes” in the
universe in the form of miracles.
The other view of God actually predates
this view, and is the actual historical and traditional view of God
for Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well as several other world
religions. But it has been lost in the churchianity. This is the view
that God is reality. God is the universe. Here's a couple scriptures
for you:
Acts 17:28
For in Him we live and move and have
our being:...
Psalms 139: 7-10
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or
whither shall I flee from they presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art
there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there.
If I take the wings of the wings of the
morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Even there shall thy hand lead me, and
thy right hand shall hold me.
There are others. The concept of the
omnipresence of God supersedes the concept of the personal being
apart from the universe. In fact the whole concept of “intervention”
doesn't even make sense anymore. God is the universe, the reality,
“is”. We exist in him.
This is important in how we view
creation. God didn't create an “event” where the universe was set
in motion. He keeps it being by His being.
Its also important in how we worship
Him. We can choose to be a part of His process, but the process is
going to go on without us. God IS the process.
Once again, this is the actual original
view of God by the very people who wrote the bible. Don't take my
word for it, go look it up for yourself.
Its called immanent panentheism. Which
is a fancy word for saying “All is in God”.
This brings us back to our Humility
experiment. Since we all exist within God, each of us equally flawed
and short of God, each of us equally unique and beautiful in God,
then how we treat each other is how we treat God. And if God is the
great unifying force, and He is, then the nature of pride to compete
and create enmity is the anti-God. We got to smash it in ourselves
wherever we find it.
But there's one last step to this
Humility puzzle....
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