Lent & Humility

We are about to enter the liturgical season of Lent, a contemplative time of year for some Christians. This 40-day period of the church calendar is the time when Christians remember the events leading up to and including the death of Jesus Christ. It’s a time of reflection and asking for forgiveness as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus at the feast of Easter, which marks the end of Lent.

We start Lent on Ash Wednesday by remembering that we came from dust, and we will someday return to dust. It’s a humbling reminder of our mortality. Easter reminds us that our death is not the end of the story, but we are all guessing about what life looks like on the other side of resurrection.

In Lent we prepare for resurrection through prayer, fasting/self-denial, repentance of sins and asking for forgiveness, all of which I put under the umbrella of slowing down and living humbly.

Fasting and self-denial (giving up something you love) can be seen as a way to create more space for God in your life, a way of embracing simplicity, and a way of testing your self-discipline and ability to resist temptation, in the same way Jesus resisted temptation in the desert. These can be humbling experiences.

Repentance of sin and seeking forgiveness are also humbling experiences. Repentance is an acknowledgement that you are imperfectly human just like everyone else. You’ve made mistakes and seeking forgiveness of those mistakes is a vulnerable position to put yourself in - quite humbling.

THE DARK SIDE OF HUMILITY

There can be a dark side to humility if you define it incorrectly. By one definition it’s “a modest or low view of one's own importance.” That can get turned into thinking things like: 

I am less than…
I am not worth…
I am just a “lowly human”.
I am not important.

It can turn into low self-esteem, thinking you should never be recognized for the things you do in life, thinking you do not deserve the things you have or that others are more deserving, and on and on and on.

This is a sad misrepresentation of humility, which is realizing you are no mor important and no less important than anyone else; you are made in the image of God like everyone else.

Humility is not the denial of human needs, such as being seen, known and recognized for who you are and the wonderful things you have done. It’s being seen and recognized while also not letting that recognition fool you into thinking you’re “better than” others. You are important, you are just not “more important”.

Humility is also not about degrading yourself as worthless or unimportant. It’s about remembering who you are, in relation to God and all other living beings. God created all of us in their image. I am not better than you and you are not better than me. I am also not less than you and you are not less than me. We are equally part of creation, and we will all eventually return to the dust from which we came.

Lent is an opportunity to step out of our “day to day hustle and bustle” to slow down and contemplate our mortality and humbly remember our place in the grand scheme of creation. It’s an opportunity to take the focus from what you do and focus on who you are.

As you walk together with God through the 40 days of Lent, may you be reminded that you were created from the love of God, in the image of God, and that the way to love that image of God in others is through humility.

By The Very Rev. Michelle "MJ" Johnston