Tag: Philippians 2

Learn with a Humble Heart

Sitting in front of the TV, I watched in dismay as footage of angry mobs rioting and looting flashed across the screen. It was April of 1992 and I was finishing my last quarter at UCLA. Four police officers had just been acquitted for usage of excessive force in the arrest and beating of an African American man named Rodney King. Although the riots were several miles away, the smell of smoke from burning buildings wafted into the window on that warm, spring evening. Living in huge, multi-ethnic city like Los Angeles had been an eye-opening experience for a suburban girl like me. It had been both exhilarating and exhausting. 

Less than a year later, I found myself driving into one of the neighborhoods where the looting and rioting had been severe. Charred buildings and boarded up storefronts still punctuated the city blocks as the neighborhood struggled to rebuild. Now in graduate school, I’d been assigned to do my student teaching at a large high school in the heart of this neighborhood. Pulling in that first day, a guard at the school’s entrance rolled back the chain-link fence to let me into the parking lot. As I walked on campus, the color of my light skin seemed to draw the attention of many eyes.  A few of the other student teachers, faculty and staff members shared my ethnicity, but not a single student on campus did.

My semester teaching at that high school was one of the most intense seasons in my life. Not only was I learning how to manage classrooms of students while teaching 10th grade English and 12th grade Writing Composition, I was also encountering hard truths about racial tension and inequality. Issues that had created shocking news stories on TV a few months earlier became personally relevant as I got to know my students and saw the reality of their lives.

After mornings of teaching, afternoons of graduate classes, and evenings of lesson planning, I would lie in bed at night with a clenched jaw. I wrestled with feelings of frustration, helplessness, and discouragement. It was a struggle to find ways to get students to come to class consistently, let alone do their assignments. The more I got to know them, the more I began to see how tangled and complicated their situations were. I felt powerless in the face of the broader social issues that plagued my students, but I did my best to connect with them and teach them how to read critically and to write thoughtfully. Some students warmed up to me, others remained at a cool distance. In those months, I learned how to teach, but I also gained a new understanding and sensitivity for people of color with struggles and challenges that I’d never experienced personally.

Memories of that time have been at the forefront of my mind as protests and riots fueled by racial injustice and senseless deaths have dominated the news recently. Those old feelings of frustration, helplessness, and discouragement have resurfaced. The tangled and complicated situations I saw as a student teacher haven’t gotten any better. It’s so overwhelming and exhausting, I’m tempted to disengage. However, as a committed follower of Jesus, I don’t have the luxury of tuning out.

This week I’ve been studying Philippians 2:3-4, which includes these challenging words: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (NIV) I don’t see anything in there that gives permission to turn a blind eye to the racial injustices that have plagued our nation and reached a boiling point. It’s a delicate and uncomfortable topic that can no longer be avoided. This isn’t a Black problem, it’s an issue we need to care about as a nation, and especially as followers of Jesus.

I wish I had a simple solution or action point, but I don’t. Here’s what I do know: Jesus is the answer to every problem we face. He is the cure to the sin that is manifesting itself in so many ugly ways in our nation right now. I keep coming back to a quote by A.W. Tozer: “As God is exalted to the right place in our lives, a thousand problems are solved all at once.” And that leads me to the two greatest commandments in Scripture: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27, NIV) Imagine what our world would look like if loving God was our highest priority and loving our neighbors (which means all people) was how we showed this. 

If, like me, you’re struggling with how to respond in this time of unrest and tension, may I humbly and respectfully offer some starting points?

  • Seek wisdom from godly, biblical leaders rather than relying on news headlines (see my suggestions at the end of this post). Commit to listening and learning before reacting. And keep pursuing knowledge and understanding even when upsetting headlines no longer dominate the news cycle.
  • Ask trustworthy people to dialogue with you about what you’re learning and how you’re being challenged.
  • Process your thoughts and feelings with God. Share with Him honestly. Invite Him to speak to you through His Word to show you how to respond in your attitude and actions.

Here are passages from Scripture that have been shaping my prayers recently:

Psalm 139: 23-24: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” We can tell God what is on our hearts and identify anxious thoughts in our minds related to current events. Be bold and ask Him to show you any blind spots you have that are hurtful towards others– especially regarding race. Confess anything He shows you. Thank Him for helping you to see what needs changing so that you can grow closer to Him and be an agent of reconciliation with others.

2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Once we’ve humbled ourselves and confessed our sin, we’re ready to pray for our community, our nation, and our world. Pray for others who need to humble themselves, seek God’s face, and turn from evil. Pray that people will desire to surrender their sin to God and that they will look to Him to heal the hurts in our nation and world. Whenenver you see gut-wrenching headlines, let them prompt you to pray for the people involved.

Luke 6:37, 41-42:“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven…Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Ask God to show you where you’re judging others and magnifying their faults—especially those who have differing opinions and reactions. Pray for a forgiving heart. Pray that God would be at work in others to help them examine themselves and turn from sinful attitudes and behaviors. Pray for people in our nation to have hearts willing to forgive and heal.

 Daniel 9:18-19 “Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” Let’s pray for God to show His mercy and to intervene in the midst of racial strife. Our real enemy isn’t social injustice, police brutality, racism, poverty, or violence. Those are merely tools the devil uses to cause chaos, hatred, division, and distress in our world. Let’s ask the Lord to forgive us and to bring hope, peace, healing, and reconciliation to our hurting nation for the sake of His glory.

Invite the Lord to speak to you through these passages and to show you how to respond. Consider using some of the resources below to help you listen and learn. Just start with one. Praying, educating yourself, and sharing with others are simple actions that have powerful consequences.

Watch or Listen: 

  • Pause. Listen. Pray. CPC Pastor Tyler Scott, Earl Smith & Miles McPherson. Click here to watch now.
  • IF:TV. Jennie Allen’s conversation about racial reconciliation with LaTasha Morrison and Mike Kelsey on Wed. June 10. Click here for more information and to find additional resources.
  • Fuller Seminary President, Mark Labberton’s candid conversation with Dr. Dwight Radcliff. Click here to watch now.

Read:

  • The Third Option: Hope for a Racially Divided Nation by Miles McPherson and Drew Brees
  • Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us. by Benjamin Watson and Ken Petersen

The Blessing of the Broken Road

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I tossed the essay on my son’s bed and congratulated him. Across the top of the page, his teacher had written “This is AMAZING!” in bold blue print. He’d been assigned to write about an event that sparked a period of personal growth for him. His descriptive language impressed me, but it was the recognition of how a difficult season in his life had changed him for the better that made me weepy. What a joy it was to see him choosing to learn and grow through hardships instead of letting them make him bitter and cynical.

It’s hard work to re-frame the way we view difficult times. We’re quick to label them as bad and to rail against the unfairness of having to endure them. Most of us view setbacks as interruptions from the way life is “supposed” to unfold, betraying a sense of entitlement we may not realize we have. But when we pause to examine hard circumstances further, there is much we can learn. The opportunities for personal and spiritual growth are only limited by our willingness to shift our perspectives. When we begin to view hard circumstances through a biblical lens, we start seeing that what looks bad on the surface is brimming with good.

Perhaps one of the best examples of this comes from the life of Joseph recorded in Genesis. After being sold by his jealous brothers to slave traders, he finds himself in a series of unfortunate circumstances. Despite being a person of honor and integrity, he’s falsely accused of rape, thrown in prison, and left there for two years. Eventually his character and faithfulness to God lead to a stunning reversal. After interpreting a prophetic dream for Pharaoh, he’s made second in command of Egypt. In this position, he’s tasked with ensuring the crops produced during seven years of plenty are stored to prepare for seven subsequent years of famine, in keeping with Pharaoh’s dream.

Meanwhile, Joseph’s family in Canaan experiences the ravages of the famine and heads to Egypt to buy food. His ten older brothers appear before him to buy grain and, “Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.” (Genesis 42:8, NIV)

After several interactions with them over time, Joseph can’t restrain himself any longer and proclaims, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.’” (Genesis 45:4b-7, NIV)

Rather than spewing anger at them for selling him into slavery and inflicting years of misery upon him, he reassures them. Joseph sees the big picture and realizes that God, in His sovereignty, used him to save his family and many others from starving to death during the famine. Later, he reiterates this to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20, NIV)

Reading that leads me to think of someone else who endured hardship for the good of many: Jesus. Just as Joseph tumbled downward from his privileged position as Jacob’s favorite son to a lowly slave, Jesus left the glory of heaven to become a lowly man: “[Jesus] made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:7, NIV)

Joseph endured the humiliation of being falsely accused and punished for a crime he didn’t commit.  In the same way, Jesus was falsely accused and received punishment for the sins of all humankind: “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8, NIV)

Scripture explains the purpose behind this: “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3-4, NIV)

Joseph traveled a broken road, but he saw how his painful circumstances led to ultimate good—the saving of many lives. Like him, Jesus’ suffering led to an even greater good–the saving of humankind. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17, NIV)

God allowed His son to walk a painful path for the sake of ultimate good, triumphing over evil, death, and sin. Could it be possible that the lesser hardships we endure can also be used for His glory and our good? 

Beloved author and theologian C.S. Lewis describes pain as “God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Are you willing to listen? How about refocusing your perspective on hardships using the lens of God’s goodness? This can move you past the pain and discomfort to discover the greater significance, as Joseph did.

Keep his story in mind and consider how your hurts and hardships might be pointing you toward the Lord as you listen to “Bless the Broken Road” by Selah.

To learn about other parallels between Joseph and Jesus, click here.