The High Fives and Humility

Each week, one of the coaches at the Body in Training Track Club leads the Thursday devotions by giving a little talk about the topic of the week.  There have been various themes like doing your best, salvation, and serving others.  This week, we are discussing humility which I must have all figured out because I am the keynote speaker this week (actually I signed up, I don't think anyone would ever hand pick me to speak on such a weighty subject).

As we go through life, some things that we learn affect us down to our very core.  Some of those things are profound because they are complex and you have to think about it for a long time before you have that ah-ha moment.  Others are quite simple but they piece many things together and since they are simple, they have an immediate impact on you and you have perfect recall that you can use whenever you need it.

The super simple, life changing, and powerful thing that I learned back in the summer of 1997 was The High Fives.  I was working at a youth athletic camp north of Cincinnati through Athletes in Action and the director of the camp taught us all The High Fives.  The High Fives are five principals that the director's father had put together as a guide to proper living. 

The High Fives are simple and here they are:

1.    Fear God – Be continually mindful of God and His awesomeness

                  a.       Deuteronomy 10:12-13
                  b.      Proverbs 12:27

2.   Be Yourself – You are God’s workmanship, embrace your uniqueness

                   a.       Psalm 139:13-14
                   b.      Romans 12:4-6a
                   c.       Ephesians 2:10

3.   Do Your Best – Your best doesn’t mean 99% effort

                  a.       Colossians 3:17, 23-24
                  b.      Hebrews 12:1
                  c.       Philippians 3:14

4.   Be Honest – Lies will catch up with you, somehow the truth always comes out

                  a.       Proverbs 12:22
                  b.      Colossians 3:9
                  c.       Proverbs 19:22

5.   Be A Mirror – Reflect God’s awesomeness to others and reflect what other’s say to you up to God

                  a.       Philippians 2:3-5
                  b.      1 Peter 4:10
                  c.       Luke 14:11

So, what does The High Fives have to do with humility?  I have found that they are the answer for nearly every situation I have ever been in and I'm pretty sure that they can be that for you (and my athletes too).  This is about humility though so I will talk through these principals and help you see how each of them point you to a more humble and powerful life.

When people hear Fear God, people are often a little confused by what that means.  Isn't God supposed to be our Father in Heaven?  Doesn't everyone say that He's loving, compassionate, and generous?  That doesn't sound like someone that I would be afraid of.  It is true that God is more loving and generous than we can fathom but he is also absolutely perfect, absolutely powerful, and he is absolutely everywhere.  Being constantly mindful of His absoluteness should give you a healthy and continuous reverence for Him.  It's hard to think that you're a big deal when you compare your awesomeness with His awesomeness.

If you are trying to be something that God did not create you to be then you are never going to be happy.  You (and me) are God's workmanship, he made each of us unique with different gifts and passions.  Embrace what makes you amazing and give God the glory as you love nearly every minute of your life.

Doing your best sounds pretty cliche but so few people really give 100%.  Most of the time, it isn't even appropriate to give a mere 100%, you have to give something like 110% or 150% or whatever.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that giving more than 100% isn't possible, but these exagerated percentages show how rarely we really do our very best.  God wants us to do things to the very best of our abilities, with maximum effort, using all of the gifts and resources than He has given to us.  If you truly do everything with maximum effort, you will be too busy and effective in whatever you're doing to worry about bragging.

Be honest, sounds simple enough, but is it?  If you are truly honest, you know that whatever you just did that you were puffing your chest out about could have been done better.  You may have won because you got a lucky bounce or another person got a bad break.  Only you know how much work you put in and how well you really performed.  Be honest with others and be honest with yourself and you will realize that there is always room for improvement (and if there is no room for improvement, that should be pretty humbling too).

Being a mirror is a great visual to the idea of reflecting God and His love to others.  Think of the mirror at 45 degrees where whatever shines down from above gets reflected to others and whatever is directed at the mirror from the ground level gets reflected up to heaven.  If you are being a good mirror then whatever gifts you have received from God will shine from you on to others to bless them.  The mirror also reflects things upward so whatever others tell you (whether good or bad), you should reflect those up to God and give him praise (of if they say bad things then send that up to God so that you don't have to dwell on it and you can continue to love those who say [or do] bad things to you).  Re-directing all praise that you receive from others up to God reminds us that we are using the gifts that He has given us to do good things and we are merely being good stewards of those gifts.

So go, live life, love others, and whenever you're in a situation where you don't know what to do or how to think, ask yourself, "am I following the High 5's?"

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. - 1 Peter 4:10