Learning the ‘Little Way’
Kari is preaching/teaching a sermon in a communications lab class on Monday, and has 20 minutes to develop the themes of Philippians 2:1-4. I was eager and to have her practice on me today, receiving her words of wisdom and exhortation as the food my soul needed.
She’s posted the rough draft of her manuscript over on her blog. Her four points are the Premise, Picture, Path and Pursuit of unity as believers in the church. One of my favorite parts is centered around verse 3 on the Path:
Verse 3 provides us with a Path to unity.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” (Phil. 2:3)
The path to unity has a steep downgrade. The road goes down, and down and down and down. At times it’s windy, at times narrow, but always always down. The amazing thing is that this downward path takes you to the mountaintop. The summit of the Christian life is experienced on the mountaintop of humility.
Amen. I needed that, especiallly these days as I learn more and more the blessings of being poor in spirit, desperate for Christ and needing God’s Word to guide our every steps.
Andrew Murray says humility is the sense of entire nothingness which comes when we see how truly God is all, and in which we make way for God to be all. Humility is losing oneself in God. It is a total lack of concern for self, which sets us free.
In making the fourth point (Pursuit) we are reminded how this frees us from pride.
Tozer says, The burden of self-love is a heavy load indeed.
CS Lewis said, “The pleasure of pride is like the pleasure of scratching. If there is an itch one does want to scratch; but it is much nicer to have neither the itch nor the scratch. As long as we have the itch of self-regard we shall want the pleasure of self-approval; but the happiest moments are those when we forget our precious selves and have neither but have everything else (God, our fellow humans, animals, the garden and sky) instead.”
Humility, then is forgetting our precious selves. When we do this, we are freed to gain true fellowship and unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
She goes on to remind us that “humility truly is the most freeing quality of life,” and the entire passage is centered around making the case as to why that is.
Kari’s final words drive the full thrust of the the passage home:
So you may be wondering, how can I cultivate this? Understand the Premise—we are accepted and loved by God. Gaze at the Picture—Love, Unity, Like-mindedness. Follow the Path down to humility. And lay down your burden of self for the Pursuit of one another. Do you want the secret to this? It’s found in the Little Way. Therese of Lisieux devised a prayer-filled approach to life that is deceptively simple. Seek out the menial job, welcome unjust criticisms, befriend those who annoy us, and help those who are ungrateful. Lay down your burden of self and Live the Little Way.
That’s a sermon I’d like not only to preach, but to live.
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