Commentary: “..in humility count others more significant than yourselves”

BY JASON SCHIFO

It is a strange time, isn’t it?

As I look back on the almost 50 years that I have been alive, there isn’t a time that mirrors the feelings I am feeling in myself and seeing in others. 

It is a strange time because for the first time the future seems uncertain. 

It is a strange time because I cannot do the things I once did. 

It is a strange time because there is no toilet paper at the store. 

(quite frankly, I never saw that one coming…)

Probably the strangest thing to come down the pike, was a recent tweet by Republican Ted Cruz praising his Democratic political rival Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. As Brian Schatz said, “when you see Ted Cruz qouting and praising AOC, you know these are extraordinary times.” 

Strange times indeed.

I was joking with a friend yesterday, that I am going to have to discontinue my daily regimine of taking a short afternoon nap because every time I wake up something else seems to happen. 

I napped and the President declared a national state of emergency. 

I napped and woke up to find my friends abroad were desperately trying to get home before a travel ban was imposed. 

I napped yet again, only to find out schools were closed. 

I woke up from my Sunday nap and all the restaurants in Illinois are closed to dining in, and some cases closed completely. 

It is all so strange, but maybe, what is most strange and foreign in this time is that we are finding out how much we really need each other. There is something unsettling about uncertainty that has the power to bring us together in really beautiful ways.

I recently saw a math teacher post online that she is willing to take calls and help parents through the difficulties they may have over the next few weeks as kids are doing e-learning from home. 

Both McAllister’s Deli and Maize Mexican Grill in Champaign have started a free lunch program for kids, no purchase necessary. 

And there are lots of beautiful little stories just like these popping up under the hashtag #BetterTogether, but there could be, there should be, even more. Why? Because the truth is, we are better together, but in our me-centered society that seems very strange. 

A long time ago someone wise told me that I can’t control everything, but I can control how I react to everything. As I thought about that it led me back to a very familiar passage in the Bible: 

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4

This isn’t new, and many of you are at least familiar with this verse as it is often found on coffee mugs, t-shirts and Christian wall plaques. It really is a beautiful and profound thought. It’s also one that quite frankly isn’t done all that often. But imagine, just imagine, if people really lived like that. I know, it seems strange. 

Maybe you are like me and as you read that passage it seemed to you that humility was significant to this strange call to count other above yourself. So we then ought to define humility, because it gets a bad wrap.  

Many people think humility is thinking less of yourself, but that just isn’t true. Rick Warren offers some very simple clarity in saying that, “Humility isn’t just thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”

As Calla Woods, a brave young lady who loved God and others, liked to say, it is “looking out for the left out.” Humility is key in laying aside your needs to look on, to look out for the needs of others. 

This is important because I know that of those reading this article there are some who think that this all this coronavirus stuff is simply media hype, fearmongering, overreacting, and quite frankly, just plain obnoxious. I also know that there are those who in the midst of all this coronavirus stuff are fearful, overwhelmed, alone and wondering what tomorrow might bring. And in the middle, in varying degrees, are the rest of us. 

“..in humility count others more significant than yourselves,” means that in order to love others we need to think less about what we think about things, and consider how others are thinking and feeling. It is not loving to tell people how they ought to feel. Love meets people where they are at and simply loves them. 

In all that we are experiencing together, the strangest thing we may encounter is people who are laying aside their own opinions and meet one another where they are at. That friends, is strange indeed. 

In doing this I believe we will truly be #BetterTogether.