Am I there Yet?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:2


Election day is tomorrow. For better or for worse, after the votes are counted, we will know who the players will be in the political realm for the next two years. 


For the past week I have not posted a devotional. I have been in East Texas getting a feel for the district that is home to the state representative, God willing, I will be working for in the next session. As we have met people in coffee shops and Chamber luncheons, in churches and on the street, I have been reminded that Austin, the seat of government in our state, is not what makes us special. It is the people who send their representatives to Austin who are special. My theory that Austin is 40 square miles surrounded by reality has been re-affirmedl. As has my belief that representatives to Austin and Washington should be required to spend the majority of their  time at home in order to provide the necessary inoculation against the dread disease of  "government knows best."


When this series of devotionals started, my goal was to take to heart 2 Chronicles 7:14 and endeavor to "humble myself." It seems that the difficulties I have with humility were shared by Benjamin Franklin. In his own quest for humility, he noted:


In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.


So, 40 days into my quest to humble myself, I can truthfully tell you that the end result is a realization of how far short of the goal I continue to fall. Like the kids on the family vacation, I keep asking myself, "Am I there, yet?" But, humility is not a 40 day process. It is a lifetime process. Andrew Murray, in his book Humility reminds us:


The command is clear: humble yourself. That does not mean that it is your work to conquer and cast out the pride of your nature, and to form within yourself the lowliness of the holy Jesus. No, this is God's work; the very essence of that exaltation, wherein He lifts you up into the real likeness of the beloved Son. What the command does mean is this: take every opportunity of humbling yourself before God and man. In the faith of the grace that is already work in in you; in the assurance of the more grace for victory that is coming; up to the light that conscience each time flashes upon the pride of the heart and its workings; notwithstanding all there may be of failure and falling, stand persistently as under the unchanging command; humble yourself. Accept with gratitude everything that God allows from within or without, from friend or enemy, in nature or in grace, to remind you of your need of humbling, and to help you to it. Reckon humility to be indeed the mother-virtue, your very first duty before God, the one perpetual safeguard of the soul, and set your heart upon it as the source of all blessing. 


Lord, help me to remember to do my part to enable you to do your part.