To Have and To Hold

"The way of humility is this: self-control, prayer, and thinking yourself inferior to all creatures."

 

Thinking we are inferior to all creatures seems so much to ask. But stop and think about that for a minute. Although we do not see ourselves as such how much more superior are we? What puts us above all other creatures, including our own kind? In other words, what makes you better than say…your neighbor?

I know what we see as betterment, but the challenge here is to remove materialistic things from the list. So, now that your car, house, job…none of that matters, what are you left with? Yourself. Who you are and what makes you the person that you are. In judging only that part of you, your spirit….what in that makes you better or worse than your neighbor, your friends, your family. We are all created equal. Therefore, the differentiating factor is your heart and its place. This goes without saying in your everyday life. But lets take it a step further and consider how you are with the one you love. Would you give up your life for the person to live? Would your love remain the same if your quality of life declined drastically due to job loss? I know we all jump up and say yes…until put to the test that is.

I was talking to a friend, who has become nothing more than the “person who pays the bills”….no more no less. The same person who made a vow to love unconditionally, no  matter what, has no sense of humility. Yes, compassion and humility are as important as love in a relationship. However, this must come from both parties. One person making an effort is not enough. Its as helpful as planting a garden in the middle of the ocean and expecting to reap a full harvest. What are we thinking?

What I believe seems to happen is we all proclaim to be Christians when the tide is down. Yes when  you are lower middle class and have nowhere to go but your knees you are self proclaimed Christian. You go through the motions of church on Sunday and being overall tolerant. Then you get married, life is looking brighter….as times passes your life in the materialistic sense improves and what happens? Your life as a Christian diminishes greatly. Its like the balance scales of justice…materialism goes up, faith and thankfulness go down. Why? Because, simply put, we are asses. Yeah, I said it asses.

It seems once life gets better for us we forget ours and where we came from. That attitude transcends to all of our relationships in life. The person we swore in front of God and our family and friends to love, honor and cherish when in fact we torment, cheat on and ridicule. Yet, we still have the audacity to call ourselves Christians.

We don’t seem to have evolved at all or learned any lessons through our history. When do we start? How many people must we hurt to numb ourselves in the lie called materialism?