Humility

It was 1975 and I was camping with the college Bible study group on the banks of the Hoh River at La Push, Washington.  It was April and we had a three day weekend, so camping was a requirement, no matter how cold it was!  And was it ever!

On Friday night, we had discussed having a baptism time on Saturday morning.  Now, I had not been dunked since I had accepted that Jesus was real - and so was my need of Him.

It was quite the ordeal as there was ice on the ground, we were barefoot, about to be dunked into ice cold glacial water.  Yeah, not the smartest situation .... but we were being obedient.  Afterwards, we retired to the unheated bathrooms at the campground to dry off and put some warm clothing on!

I stripped down and started drying off.  But I was distracted by a guy named Leonard Savage (email me dude when you see this!) whom was kneeling at my feet and trying to clean off all of the sand and fir needles!  I was horrified!

We had quite a discussion afterwards.  I had never even heard of someone cleaning someone else's feet other than the story of Jesus washing the disciple's feet!  And I was no disciple!  We talked about doing what is necessary, being willing to do the least, to be the least to help our brother and sisters in the faith.  Hmmmmm ......

I only stumbled into footwashing one other time - at a wedding a decade ago where they washed one another's feet to show their willingness to put the other one first!  You would have thought they had sacrificed the pastor as part of the ceremony!  I have not seen a fight like that in a  church since my oldest daughter covered her head to pray in church!  EEPAH!!!!!  Cross-culture train wrecks can be fun ....

But, humility ... with one another, in public, in the church, as the basis of our marriages.  Hmmm, sure is not the message of this culture - much less of today's Church!

We can not have God's power in our lives, in our marriages, in our ministries as long was we insist on keeping the big ME at the center of our lives.  Live by God's rules, live by His power, do His work - and - it all begins with humility before Him and others.  No, I am not saying we need to start footwashing, but the heart of that intent is what we need to cultivate.