Boasting and Humility

There’s a great lesson for our kids in a story told about retired baseball player Chase Utley. It seems that when Utley was a little boy playing ball, he complained to his father about a fellow player who did quite a bit of show-boating on the field, and bragging off the field. Utley’s dad shared a simple lesson he learned from his high school guidance counselor. The lesson was this: “If you’re really good at something, you don’t have to tell people. They will tell you.” The writer of Proverbs says that “humility comes before honor.” Jesus reminds his followers that “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” And Peter reminds Christ-followers to “clothe yourselves with humility.” We are all sinners saved by grace. Anything good we have or do is a gift of grace. I am reminded this morning that in my home, my church, my community, and my world I am nothing. . . and if I am something, it is only by the grace of God.