Taking the Low Road
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 1 Peter 5:6 NASB
Humble – The road less traveled is not a highway. It is a back road, the one that wanders through no-name villages, over streams without signs, across ditches and into forests where you aren’t quite sure where you’re going. It is the road without tourists, without place names and without spectacular views. It is the tapeinoo road, the road of humility. When you take this road, you don’t qualify for extra miles. You don’t get a certificate at the end. You just get the experience of being unrecognized and unnoticed. It’s the same road that David wanted to travel when he cried out, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” It’s the road of broken axles and broken hearts.
“Humble yourselves” is the Greek verb form tapeinothete. The root verb means to be lowly, insignificant and weak. It is the last thing on earth that any natural human being desires. It is precisely the opposite of fame, fortune and fitness. Everywhere we look in our culture, strength is admired, power is applauded and recognition is pursued. According to a recent poll, the top two priorities of people between 17 and 25 are fame and money. Both are signals that personal validation is a serious deficiency in our world. But neither David nor Peter is espousing denigrating our worth. They are simply pointing out that our true worth doesn’t come from traveling the high road. Our real worth is found in humility under the mighty hand of God. The prepositional phrase is crucial. One can always display humility by egoless behavior, but for the men and women of Scripture, true humility is a function of the recognition of God’s sovereignty. That means the road less traveled is His pathway, not ours even if we chose the low road to accomplish our purposes.
So you’re on the low road. On this road, you don’t get to determine the twists or turns. You don’t decide when the road goes up or down. Your job is to just keep traveling, following the road wherever it takes you. And the reason you can do this is that you travel under God’s mighty hand. So no matter where He takes you on this road, you know that as long as you stay on it you will be where He wants you to be. Sometimes that will feel fabulous. Sometimes it won’t. But, as Frodo said, “The road goes ever on,” and this road is the one designed just for you.
“We cannot control the things life does to us. They are done before you know it, and once they are done, they make you do other things,” the gentleman said (from The International movie). But his conclusion was wrong. It is certainly true that we cannot control where the road goes, but we are responsible for how we travel it. We can travel with gratitude or resistance. We can travel with expectation or regret. Sovereignty is up to God. Humility is up to us.
Topical Index: humble, tapeinoo, tapeinothete, low road, 1 Peter 5:6
How true. We have been on the low road with many twist and turns to have arrived in YHWH’s land last week – the details will be in ‘my book’ as it’s a tale for sure! We hope to pursue getting residence/making Aliyah. Staying in a friends studio till May 23rd while looking for a place to rent – if anyone knows of a 2/3bed +living room etc in Jerusalem please write to me – alemetu at hush mail dot com – want fully furnished/garden/balcony if poss. Budget tight – 5000 NIS
We have travelled in expectation and obedience against all the odds….Being in His will on the low road surpasses any other road even with all the tears and hardships!
Great post Skip and yesterday’s too!
Christine (Chaya) – given this Hebrew name years ago from Abba – was reticent to use it but it’s time!
Shabbat shalom to all
Sounds like the road Yeshua traveled on.
He knew where He was going.
And if we don’t, how good it is to know
the One we’re following does!!
In life I have found that traveling on God’s time table means that you are never early and you are never late, so enjoy the trip. What we perceive as detours and impediments are put there for a reason. There are things we are supposed to do and people we are supposed to help along the way that we don’t know about, and helping may interfere with your time table but not God’s.
The just shall live by faith. Spiritual eyes in spiritual ears give me what I need to see and hear. Whether the road is high or low, I try not to compare myself with others but this is difficult for me. Someone encouraged me many years ago with the word that still stings today, if you’re looking for your reward on Earth that’s all you’ll get ouch
This is so very true. I believe humility is one very important key in our walk with GOD.
Where we are, personally, caused us to sit this morning and read the 10th, 11th and today’s posts together. Oh, how we needed the thread of thoughts and perspective. Thank you, Skip, for your walk, and for sharing it with us.
Agin my friend you touch on the ineffable, that evasive stuff of life that requires real attentive and carefull consideration of the movements of ones heart. Humility to me is a voice within that contends with and balences my pride. Of course I prefer to walk in dignity rather than pride, as scripture warns “pride puffs up”. Holly Steele the first woman concierge for the Fairmont Hotel on Union Square in San Francisco wrote in her sweet little book of lessons from her job “thank you very much” the best definition of how to activate humility in one’s life that I have found. “Don’t let other people make you feel bigger or smaller than you actually are, always remain your own size.” We all come in different sizes simply being true to who we are, what we are called to do and to do that with grace, kindness and humility, I think brings pleasure to the heart of Yahweh and peace to our own. I have been called in different seasons to walk the high road and the low road, through dark passages and light ones. To me it’s how we walk those paths that makes all the difference. Either high or low if we walk them in truth and grace we will find our way home.
Glory Haluluiah I figured out how the 30 min editing feature works. If you do not close the edit tab after you post your comments you can for up to the 30 min limit Mark has set, you can repost your corrections… (the other Mark…By the way (a “Mark”ed confusion lead to a techno driven disconnect last month for me))
Ok, I am testing this.
Well, I posted it and then went looking for the thing you called “edit tab” and realized I did not know what that was, or how it got “closed”.
Some how it worked for me once, When I tried to repeat it I could not find it. What I understood Mark to say was that he increased the limit for editing to 30 min. Somehow once it allowed me to re-post over the previous post and in doing so I corrected some errors. Not sure how to repeat that. But we can try.
Well, you out teched me, Mark Parry! I didn’t know that. My problem is though, I’m normally logged in as an admin so I don’t see what y’all see.
I’ve had alot on my plate as of late but Skip and I will be continuing to have the discussion about making this a membership site so that people have the ability to edit, amongst other things. Still, need to work out some details with that….