Young & humble

In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (1 Peter 5:5-6)

I was never the one to “submit” to anyone when I was younger. I don’t know what it is about this concept of submitting, but as a rebellious kid, I wanted things MY way. The funny thing is, I thought I knew SO much.

When I first got saved, I went to a bible school, and started to learn about who God is, and I thought I learned a lot in the first year, feeling confident. I would teach others about who God is, and I even try to correct and teach my spiritual mentor (she’s an amazing lady who led me to Christ, and in her 60s.) It was comical how I used to brag about how “humble” I am. Because in reality, I had zero humility. I was nothing but a proud, bratty immature kid.

The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. (Isaiah 2:11)

God humbled me, through many events happened in my life, he made me realize just how much wisdom my spiritual mentor carried, and now I absolutely believe it is true that the younger should submit to the elder. Same way, I started to realize that I know nothing. I know SO little about God. He is so vast and to understand who he is is going to take me more than this lifetime.

The other day at church I heard this one quote:

“Small me, Big God”

I think this perfectly sums up how I feel about God these days. I get smaller and smaller and I see just how powerful God is daily. My reverence grew more and more towards him and began to slowly understand the “fear of the Lord”. No wonder it is said in Proverbs:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
    and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)

There is a famous old saying in Japanese, “the boughs that bear most hang lowest.” This means “the greater you become as a person, the more modest you become.”

I bet ones who bare much fruit will also hang the lowest and be the humble vessel God created us to be.

Advertisement

Work at it with all your heart

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24)

Yesterday was the beginning of a long Labor day weekend and people were like TGIF! “Thank God it’s Friday! I can’t wait to just log off work and party” is probably a what a lot of folks were thinking. For me, Friday was just like any other day, because Saturday morning I would jump right back to work. I’ve always be very content with my job, whether it’s waitressing at a restaurant, serving at a cafe, translating, or designing, it was pretty easy and pleasant for me. Perhaps I got lucky throughout the years, but I don’t think there was any point in my life that I truly hated my job.

But there was a moment when God confronted me about my work ethic. I was an expert at being “good-enough”. Pre-Christian days, I was all about cutting corners and just coasting through my work day doing the least work as humanly possible. But one day, he started to speak to me about “excellence” through scripture.

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:12)

This greatly convicted my heart. The definition of “excellence” being : the quality of being outstanding or extremely good, I started to question myself and my behavior. This of course included my work life and work ethics. (not only our church life) Am I demonstrating excellence in my workplace? So much so that the non believing co-workers start noticing / recognizing it? And ultimately having that point to God? Nope, I was not living my life that way at all.

So I started to meditate on this verse, and really go into work with a different mindset. “I want to do the best I can today.” Because everything we do, we do it for the glory of God. so why should I be so complacent?

Meeting my husband also really fueled my desire to be excellent at workplace. He would constantly encourage me that I’m so capable of excelling, and even gave me pointers on how I can even improve the process at my workplace, or manage my projects better. I started having directors/ MDs recognizing me for the work that I do, because I went above and beyond their requirements or expectations. Also with the stressful situations at work, I always prayed and asked holy spirit to give me peace about it. One day my co-worker asked me

“How are you so positive and hopeful ALL the time? I don’t understand”

Then Peter 3:15 came to me : But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect

“It’s because I prayed to God. It’s really because of Jesus.”

I still remember the look on her face. 🙂 Everything we do, do it for his glory! Lord I pray that I never forget the fact that even when I’m working for “people” it is you, that I’m ultimately serving. Thank you for even giving me an opportunity to work and I pray that I can represent your love at my workplace everyday, Amen.