it's hard to be humble...

hu-mil-i-ty [hyoo-mil-i-tee or, often, yoo-]

–noun

the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.

Got a lesson in that today. Not a huge class on it or anything, but a refresher course if nothing else. A and I were in the waning afterhours of our Monday morning Daybreakers meetup when I sat down with one of our regulars, an avid Christian, and we began to shoot the breeze.

I got to talking about how I recently saw (an apparently old) interview of Joel Osteen on Larry King. Larry asked Joel if he believed that when Jesus said the only way to the Father (ie. Heaven) was through Him, if he believed it. Joel of course said "yes."

Here's the kicker...

So Larry then posed the question, "Well then do you believe a Jewish person isn't going to Heaven?"

Joel backpedaled. Stuttered. Ummed and ahhed. But didn't come up with the right answer...which is: according to the Bible, they don't have a Golden Ticket. Sorry, but I didn't write the stuff.

My problem with Joel - the leader of a huge ministry - saying something to the effect of "well, I'm not one to judge and say who's gonna be admitted into Heaven and who's not" was that this answer seemed anything but an answer. I was thinking he should've laid down the law right then and there. I judged him for not giving the only answer there is to that question if we as grown adults are into telling the truth. I judged him and that was that...

Well, today I realized that that was more this: I'm too quick to judge. I have to admit it. Humbling to me, to be sure.

The intelligent gentleman that I was conversing with raised a very interesting point about a different man, who when backed into a corner, was quick to people please to save himself.

         "Aren't you with Jesus?"

                                                 "Didn't I see you with that man Jesus?"

"Weren't you just with Jesus when the guards arrested him?"

Nope. Nope. Nope. Peter denied Jesus three times. You've heard the story, and you know it ultimately ends with him declaring his love for Jesus three times on the shore after the Resurrection. But - as my wise friend said earlier today - what if we take a snapshot in time? Peter's three denials. And that's all we know of Peter. What would we then think of him? Wouldn't seem like such a great cat, would he?

Well, I did just that. I took a snapshot of Joel and judged him on that one blurb in that one interview, rather than looking at the whole enchilada. And it's not like I judged his entire character. It was one thing. However, be it one small thing or one huge thing, we aren't perfect, so how can we judge? Seems to harken back to a story about Jesus, some smug priests, a prostitute, an unruly mob and a bunch of uncasted stones.

About Larry's question and Joel's non-answer back, how do we know that Joel didn't get on his knees and beg Jesus for forgiveness right after the interview for not being true to the Word? Truth is, we don't. And some more truth is, we love to judge others, blaming them for making mistakes we know we'd never do. Right? Because we're so much better than the next guy. Right? Right...? No?

No. Not at all. Or at least we better not think we are. That's the lesson I was brushed up on today.

And that's the thing a lot of the rest of the world dislikes about Christians. We should be more humble.

Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master,

nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

                                                     -John 13:16