Humble Brag

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.

1 Peter 5:6 (NLT)

Humility (thinking and acting for others instead of ourselves) seems to be in short supply. There’s the obvious examples of when people believe that their opinion is so correct that anyone opposing them is obviously beneath them. Then there’s the fracturing of society into groups who think, talk, and protest the same way, again believing that anyone that doesn’t share their opinion should be silenced. Then there’s the humble brag. This one is most often associated with celebrities who do something nice. An example might be a celebrity who calls a press conference to announce that they are donating a few million dollars to a “worthy cause.” Why was the press conference needed to do that? Solely for the purpose of letting people know they were donating a few million dollars.

In all honesty, though, we’re all pretty good at the humble brag. Often times we only do good if others are paying attention. We want that pat on the back. We desire a recognition of our good deed. Why? Because we all struggle (or have struggled) with the desire to lift ourselves up to a higher status in the eyes of others. But, here’s the issue: we’re not all that.

For those of us that are Christians, we are servants of God. We do what He asks of us – and He asks us to do good. Notice, He doesn’t say that you’ll be recognized by humanity. In fact, if we’re doing this right, we often times will do good without anyone even noticing or knowing that we were the ones that did the good in the first place. We don’t do it for the pat on the back. We do it because in our hearts and minds we know it is the right thing to do.

We don’t earn our way to Heaven. However, God does see the good we do, even when no one else does. He recognizes when we do good out of love for others above self. He sees when we give more that we should, but we know it is truly a worthy cause. He sees when we lift others up while sacrificing of our own time, talents, and treasures.

In the end, those who humble themselves and serve God and others will be blessed. I don’t believe the blessing is reserved solely for the Second Coming. Instead, I believe that God blesses us through our good deeds. Serve one another out of love. Be blessed.