I don’t know about you, but I am not the most patient person. I like things to be moving, clicking. I like it when cars in front of me move fast and when things are going forward at work. I hate waiting, especially when waiting doesn’t look productive or when waiting means more than a few days. When waiting interrupts my neatly planned schedule or blocks some long-held dream, the ire rises in me.

When waiting drags on indefinitely and goals are placed on hold, when I wonder if things I have longed for will ever materialize, that’s when I find myself saying to God,  Come on already! What gives?  I am ready for my break. I am ready for my breakthrough. I am over the breakups and the breakdowns. What’s taking so long? You know I am all over that next plan you have for me, so bring it on!

But God isn’t impressed with my need for speed. He pulls up a chair and listens patiently. He just lets me beat the air. He lets me get it all out. And then He says with a certain firmness in His tone, Nope. It’s time you do the little stuff. Keep on keeping on. I know the beginning from the end. No worries. You just be faithful in the small stuff right now.

But God?!

Little things. Small beginnings. There is that verse in Zechariah 4:10 about not despising all of that. There is a reason that the word “despise” is clearly used. It’s because some of us hate the thought of doing the stuff that holds no glory.

You know what I mean… Those things that don’t get the praise and don’t get the raise. They are things no one sees. They are only things God notices. They don’t get you ahead. They aren’t all that fun. No limelight, no spotlight. They are the largely invisible tasks.

But according to the Lord, oh so very, very important. You know why? Because it’s in the little things that your true character is manifest.  Are you a person of integrity? Well, what do you do when no one is looking? Do you still continue to do a fantastic job even when the big boss could care less? When everyone else is favored but you, do you pout? It’s in that invisible, nothing-is-going-on-in-my-career-or-my-life season when you get to reflect on those things. And it can be painful.

I think so much about the life of Old Testament Joseph (Genesis 37-41) and how he had to taste years of humble pie before God gave him the spotlight that was promised in his God-directed dream. I reckon our buddy Joe used to think that dream he had when he was younger about those sheaves of wheat bowing to him was all about him. And there is the problem. MY ministry. MY job. MY gifts and talents. Me, me, me.

If you are a person of talent, of great skill and ability, you have to know that’s all from God. God gave it all to you; but God can temporarily take it all away if He chooses to in order to prune you for better service. God will give us favor at the proper time.

When is that? I am coming to understand that God’s time is usually when our egos can handle it. And when we think we can handle it is usually when God is just beginning to lead us down that humble path either for the first time or down the road for a second or third round because we forgot ourselves in some heady rush of fame, fortune, or popularity. It’s frustrating, but I have seen it played out many times in my own life.

But the good news is that all this humbling stuff has a purpose. And it’s not to make us miserable. It’s not to teach us a lesson. It’s not to change our personalities so that we no longer want to do anything that remotely looks like an upfront task that includes an audience.

Simply saying no to leading a Bible study, speaking at a women’s conference, or teaching at a business meeting for Fortune 500 entrepreneurs when God has gifted you to do so and has opened the door and called out your name to perform such a spotlight task is called disobedience. It’s no more right to work in the background, being all “humble” picking up trash after that conference if God is tapping you on the shoulder to use the gift you have publicly to present the keynote at that very conference. That “no” is not a sign of humility; it’s a sign of insecurity and perhaps missing the point entirely.

Look, Joseph had an awesome spotlight kind of calling ahead of him. He was going to be basically the prime minister of Egypt (Genesis 41:41-42). That’s high profile! And this mission and vision was directed by God. Let me say it another way: It was God’s idea for Joseph to be way up there in politics. Whoah!

He wasn’t meant to wash dishes all his life and sweep floors. Staying in that kind of line of work, the kind of work we often consider humble, was not God’s final intent. But it was God’s intent to present Joseph with a humble season, a very humble, quite long season called prison. I think prison pretty much seals it when it comes to being the lowest of the low, don’t you?

OK, so what is the point of these humbling times if it isn’t our personal misery, loneliness, maybe even jealousy of those who have what we want and don’t currently have?

God’s letting us come to the end of ourselves—the end of our schemes, our egos, our need to be noticed, our need to be right. Then we can do the job we have and handle it. We won’t be crushed by the weight of responsibility that inevitably will follow our noble task. We won’t we distracted by the temptation to bend when those around us want us to please them instead of God (remember Potiphar’s wife with Joseph). We won’t be out for ourselves, trying to control our own kingdoms for fear someone else will take it all away. We will be generous in the powerful position God has for us. We will use our influence for good.

I know. I know. You think you would be doing that now. You don’t need humbling. I thought that, too. (As a side note, those struggling with pride issues typically think this way… so, note to self.) Many times I have though I was ready for the task ahead, only to realize in some brief moments of glory just where my heart was. Was I centered on God? Was I centered on my fellow man? Mostly no. And… no.

Oh, God, grace us to handle the great things ahead!

But before you get too down on yourself and self-absorbed by all your faults that are so glaringly obvious, recall that God’s end goal is our good. That’s because He is good. And when others see the good that results, He gets the glory.

I love these two verses in the Bible. I think they will help you, too, so I am going to leave you with these Scripture passages. I hope you take them to heart if you are currently eating humble pie:

“Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor” (Proverbs 18:12).

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).

God will lift us up. God will bring us out from the shadows into the sunshine again. And when He does, we will be better for it.

— Laura J. Bagby

Advertisement