Refrain from the closing song at Sunday worship:
I will never be the same again.
I can never return, I’ve closed the door.
I will walk the path, I’ll run the race.
And I will never be the same again.
In my reading this morning of A Testament to Devotion by Thomas Kelly, Kelly addresses the subject of humility. He asserts that humility and its partner, holiness, are the fruits of obedience. The following excerpt about humility caught my attention.
Humility, does not rest, in final count, upon bafflement and discouragement and self-disgust at our shabby lives, a brow beaten, dog-slinking attitude. It rests upon the disclosure of the consummate wonder of God, upon finding that only God counts, that, all our own self-originated intentions are works of straw. …
But humility rests upon a holy blindness, like the blindness of him who looks steadily into the sun. For wherever he turns his eyes on earth, there he sees only the sun. The God-blinded soul sees naught of self, naught of personal degradation or of personal eminence, but only the Holy Will working impersonally through him, through others, as one objective Life and Power. …
But the humility of the God-blinded soul endures only so long as we look steadily at the Sun. Growth in humility is a measure of our growth in the habit of a Godward-directed mind. And he only is near to God who is exceedingly humble.
Reading A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly, I was particularly struck by the following quote from his section on holy obedience.
“Don’t grit your teeth and clinch your fists and say, ‘I will! I will!’ Relax. Take hands off. Submit yourself to God. Learn to live in the passive voice – a hard saying for Americans – and let life be willed through you. For ‘I will’ spells not obedience.”
Yesterday was devoted to celebrating the 70th wedding anniversary of my mother and father-in-law, Arnold and Ruby Mae Watson. We began with breakfast followed by a reception from 10-4 and ended with a catered dinner. All went well. Many family and friends were able to attend. All of their five children were present.
Today is Ann’s father’s 90th birthday. He has been greatly blessed with a long and active life. Even at ninety, he remains independent and very active. He plays golf several times a week, walking at least nine holes of each round. He continues to drive his car and teaches regularly at church. The only sign of any diminished capacity that has me concerned are his deteriorating skills at Texas 42. But, I have decided that it is not that he has deteriorated but that Ann and I are just getting better at beating he and mother.
Happy Birthday.