Wanna Be Great? Be Humble!

Humility is not weakness, but strength under control; sobriety instead of narcissistic indulgence.

The words of Jesus often strike us as paradoxical: To be free, you must be a slave; to live, you have to die; to be great, you must be humble! Hundreds of books have been written trying to understand the paradox of Jesus and His influence on humanity. The fact is that His life shouldn’t have mattered much at all when you think of the millions of lives lived by religious philosophers and leaders in human history.

But, still, the life of Jesus Christ has radically changed human history. The story of humanity can’t be told without His story is central to the narrative. Why? Why does the life of an obscure, wandering itinerant Jewish rabbi in an out-of-the-way part of the ancient Roman Empire, Who was executed by the State with the collusion of the religious leaders of His own people, and who was reported to do some fantastical and unbelievable “miracles” change the course of human history?

The paradox of Jesus's life and forever-changing human history won’t make any sense to those who see “power” as a mere force to control. In fact, there are those who see Christianity as a shameful religion, easy to mock, precisely because we declare our God to have made Himself weak so that He could save us. They see “weakness” in Christianity, where they should see the power of humility to overcome the world!

That’s real power.