A Little Humility

"Did you hear about what he did?!? It was terrible! I can't believe he did something like that!"

Have you ever talked like that about someone? Have you ever seen someone do something sinful, and then swear never to commit that sin because you're so abhorred by the sight of the sin? After all, we're better than that, right?
This is a very easy thing to do. If we know what's right, it's hard not to get disgusted when presented with something wrong. My dear brothers and sisters, I am guilty of this. But I shall tell you what happens to me every time I do this.

Every time I see a fault commited, I occasionally let my emotions get the better of me. I get disgusted with the sin I see, and often report it to others. I share my disgust with them in one way or another, and they often react with disgust. Should we be disgusted with sin? Yes! But, keep reading.

After I perform the above course of action, I often end up falling into the same sin to a certain degree. For awhile, I usually wonder what's wrong with me, or how I came about to doing this. And then I remember how I reacted to the sinner I witnessed performing the sin. At this point, I forget my pride; it's hard not to when it happens to you, because you see things in a different perspective.

While I always hate sinning in any degree, I am grateful for the lesson I learn through this. I should always be disgusted with sin, but not with the sinner. At any point in time, all of us are capable of sinning. The question is, what do we do when we see a sinner? What do we encourage others to do? Do we stand back and make emotional judgments? or do we help the sinner, and encourage others to do the same?

This all comes down to the first temptation: "You will be like gods" (I forget if it's God, or gods. A little moment of humility). We all want to decide everything for ourselves. Deny it? Just think about it. When we get up in the morning and it's 30 degrees out with a 20mph wind blowing (probably 35km or so for those that use metric), wouldn't we love to be able to decide to make it a balmy 80 with a gentle breeze (don't ask for Celsius, because you won't get it)? When we get stuck on the highway behind a slow car, wouldn't we love to be able to make them speed up? Finally, when someone upsets us, wouldn't we love to condemn them to Hell? Naturally, we're adverse to believe that we would do that. But with all honestly, this is how we feel. We want to be able to judge others and ourselves as we wish, and this naturally means putting others down and raising ourselves up. In short, we want to be like God.

The first sin was pride. This was the first sin in the universe, and it is also the first sin in each one of us. Think about it. If we didn't have pride, then we wouldn't think that anything is ours to take. If we have humility, then we will recognize that everything comes from God, and that we have to be given the thing in question. I learned and am still learning this the hard way.

When you see a sinner, what will you do?