Humility in Small Things

I was recently looking at a discussion of church policy which played out on a large scale related to global issues. In some discussion after the fact it was unclear if in the whole thing anything was accomplished.

The crux of some issues at times is we have the pride to try to change the entire world, but not the humility to try to change the problems in our neighborhood. You see we often fail to give love to our brother who we know because we are so caught up in issues which we are not capable of fixing.

In life we often have a choice to do this small thing which will make a difference or to attempt to do things so large we are very unlikely to have an impact on. If we are reasonable we will realize that most of the real heroes of the world are people who actually have the humility to do small things where they are rather than those who have the hubris to attempt to change the world (and almost always fail).

I have heard pastors at times express surprise that there are old women in the church who rarely speak who know more theology and have more wisdom than anyone in the church. You see usually it is because these old women have had the humility to actually make a difference.

They seem to many people to have not made a difference, but they have lived out their faith and thus become true Christian thinkers. Most people think out their faith and express their thought out faith in the vaguest terms, but these people have actually lived their faith. It is not an intellectual expression but rather something which has been concretely expressed in the world.

Theology is not really learned into; it is lived. It is not something which can be fully known until it is visibly expressed in love in the world. That is why a theology degree is of little meaning.

You have learned many things but what had the learning caused you to do? The proof will be when the learning is put into action. You will only see if the learning surpassed intellectual knowledge and has truly been learning under the feet of God based upon the life that it produces.