Being Humble Does Not Mean You Must Lie

For a long time I believed that part of being "humble" was denying what I believed to be true which, by definition, is lying. I thought that when someone complimented a piece I had written, although I believed it also to be well put together, I was to deny the fact and to say, "No, it really isn't that good." Or if someone said to me, "You are so smart" I thought the "humble" response was to say, "No, I'm pretty foolish actually," although most of the time I don't think myself to be a foolish person.

I have an idea that I am not the only person in this predicament. And, like me, I know that if you have found yourself in such a circumstance that your intentions were completely "honest" although you were lying. As Christians we understand that humility is a virtue we are to develop (cf. Philippians 2:3-8) in order to imitate Christ and to have His "mind" in us. But, as Christians, we also understand that we are to "speak every man truth with his neighbor" (Ephesians 4:25). How then are we to do both? It seems that in our lives these virtues, humility and honesty, are almost at odds one with another. Although it is possible, I'm afraid that being both honest and humble persons will prove harder than we had anticipated. But how is it possible to be both? I will defer to someone much wiser than I. The following excerpt is from The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.

In these letters, Screwtape, the Undersecretary to Satan himself, writes letters to his nephew, Wormwood, who is currently enrolled in Hell's College of Tempters. Screwtape advises Wormwood on how to overthrow the faith of his "patient."

"You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character. Some talents, I gather, he really has. Fix in his mind the idea that humility consists in trying to believe those talents to be less valuable than he believes them to be. No doubt they are in fact less valuable than he believes, but that is not the point. The great thing is to make him value an opinion for some quality other than truth, thus introducing an element of dishonesty and make-believe into the heart of what otherwise threatens to become a virtue. By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe that they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible. To anticipate the Enemy's [God's] strategy, we must consider His aims. The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free form any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour's talents--or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognise all creatures (even himself) as glorious and excellent things" (The Screwtape Letters, pp. 70, 71).

Being humble does not mean that you must lie, nor does lying mean that you are being humble; it just means that you are a liar. True humility is forgetting one's self and rejoicing in the truth as it is, no less, and certainly no more. To admit less is dishonest, to think more is arrogance.

The Response to Suffering

You might wonder at the title of the article being "The Response to Suffering" as opposed to "A Response to Suffering," but I assure you that the title was carefully chosen. I am confident that there is only one proper response to suffering, and that is the response that we will examine here.

On one occasion Jesus received word that Lazarus, a dear friend, was sick and near death. His response is quite puzzling to us and to some seems even insensitive. Rather than rising immediately and hasting to the house of Lazarus and curing him of his illness as Jesus had the power to do, He waited two days. Christ intentionally allowed Lazarus to die. Why? Jesus answers that question: "that the Son of God might be glorified" (John 11:4). Jesus even says to His disciples, "I am glad...that I was not there" (11:15). WHY? Again, Jesus answers that question: "to the intent that ye may believe." Finally, after two days of waiting, Jesus says, "Let us go unto him." When Jesus arrives Martha receives word, and the Bible says, "as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, [she] went and met Him" (11:20). She wasted no time in taking up her case with God. She says unto the Christ, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died" (11:21).

Doesn't she sound like so many today? "If God had been there," or, "If God existed... He would not have allowed my husband to die." "If God were with me then I wouldn't have lost my job." If God this, or, if God that. On and on people will question God and even their own belief in God. But now notice Jesus' response, and Martha's response as well.

Martha continues, "I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee" (11:22). She expresses faith in Jesus. He then answers, "Thy brother shall rise again" (11:23). Now notice, the idea of a resurrection at that very moment was not something that Martha could really wrap her head around. She does not say, "That sounds good Lord, raise him." No, she looks forward to the final resurrection. "Martha said unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day" (11:24). She had the idea that some time, somewhere, some day, Lazarus would be raised, but she had not a thought in her head about her brother coming out of the ground that very moment. "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" (11:25, 26). I find Martha's answer very interesting. She does not answer His question directly. Christ says, "Do you believe this?" And she responds, "Yea, Lord: I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world" (11:27), in essence, "I believe in YOU Lord."

We find that a strange response to suffering, but I suggest that it is the only proper response to suffering. When bad things happen, the only recourse we have is to say to God, "I believe in You Lord. I trust You God. I hope in You."

Consider the account of Job: after Satan strips Job of all of his possessions and family (save his nagging wife), Job turned to the Lord, worshipped, "And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD" (1:21). In the midst of his suffering, Job expressed his faith in God by saying, "Blessed be the name of the LORD." This hardship did not shake Job's faith in the character of God; he still considered the Lord to be "blessed," and the Bible says that "in all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly" (1:22). Well, I suppose that wasn't enough for the Old Serpent. He wants more, and God allows it. Satan is now allowed to touch Job's body, and he does so. Job, having been struck with boils, is besought by his wife to "curse God, and die" (2:9). There is not a more beautiful expression of faith in all of the Bible than is found in the following verse: "But he said to her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" (2:10).

O, how easy it is to express trust in God when things are going well. When we are happy, when the economy is good, when we get promoted, when our family is healthy, we can so easily say, "Praise God! He is a faithful and trustworthy God. Things are as they should be." But do we trust God when things are not as we think that they "should be"? Has God changed? The same God that we trusted was doing things properly when things were "as they should be," do we now think that He can no longer be trusted to govern the universe properly? Do we now charge God with wrong doing? Or even injustice? Do we say to God, "This ought not to be happening?" We should all strive to have the same faith in God that Job did when he said, "We trusted God when things were going good, shall we not also trust Him when things are going badly? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" What faith! And it doesn't stop there. As bad as things got, Job still clung to the God of heaven, saying, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" (13:15).

This is not to say that Job made no mistakes. There were times when he behaved just as many of us, I'm sure, would behave. He wanted to argue with God and do his best to prove that these things "ought not" be happening to him. Job says, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him! That I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me" (23:3-5). But even in this, even though Job did not necessarily agree with God concerning the way things "ought to be," even then, he was able to say, "He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (23:10). He trusted that God had a plan and a purpose, and that God was ultimately in control.

The ending of the book again illustrates what our answer to suffering ought to be. God eventually appears to Job. One might expect that now, finally, God will explain to Job why he has been suffering, but such is not the case. God, throughout four chapters of the Bible, presents Job with questions that he could not possibly answer. Why? Because God is impressing upon Job how little he knows and how much greater God's wisdom is than his own. We might summarize God's message this way: "Hush little child. You could not possibly understand. Just. Trust. Me." We see it again. The same message. God is wise, He is loving, He is powerful, and He is in control. Job listens, and responds. "I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from Thee...I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (42:2, 5, 6). "And the LORD turned the captivity of Job...So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning" (42:10, 12). The message of Job, from beginning to end, is a simple one: even when we don't understand, God is worthy of our trust. Trust Him.

It would do us well to consider also the apostle Paul. Paul was afflicted with a "thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7). Now, I don't know what his thorn in the flesh was, but I know this: it was unpleasant enough for him to beseech the Lord three times to remove it (cf. 12:8). What is God's response? "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (12:9). We should not be surprised by this. Over and over God's answer is the same, and friends, I'm convinced that God's answer is just the same today as it was then.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people, that's just the way things are. The fastest man does not always win the race. The strongest man doesn't always win the battle. The wisest man doesn't always get rewarded. The most talented person does not always get the recognition. "Time and chance" happen to us all (cf. Ecclesiastes 9:11). And when these bad things happen, when things do not go the way we think things "ought" to go, what should we do? God is the answer. When we say to ourselves, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me?" What is the answer we receive? "Hope thou in God" (Psalm 42:5).

Trust God, and all is well.