Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 51 verses 15 through 17:
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Humility is the path to our redemption.
The word "humility" comes from the same word we get "hummus" from. It is the Latin word "humando", meaning "of the earth". To be humble is to think of oneself as being of the earth. Humility keeps us "grounded".
I once heard Richard Rohr say he prays for a daily dose of humiliation, some daily reminder that he is human and not God. It's a pretty radical practice to pray to God to be humiliated today. It's an even more radical practice to pray it again tomorrow.
There is an old story of a young man who came to a monk saying he feared his sins were too much for God to forgive. The monk replied, "God is an artist; and his favorite medium is mud."
When we finally get it they our real name is mud, that we are sinners, and that all our sanctimony and sacrifice and playing church won't change it, then we're ready. Then it's time for the artist's hands to get hold of us, and make us into something new and beautiful.
Lord, give me the humility to let it happen today.
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