One of the first things that occurs in the process of revival is a new or renewed understanding of how great God is compared to our humanity. Being humbled by the mightiness of God?
After living in China with a number of people from different nationalities I made some observations regarding pride and humility.
When a person of one nationality would seek to express humility in one way the other nationality would think he was being proud. For instance: Here in America we are trained to say thank you when paid a compliment. If you say thank you to someone from another race they might think “thank you” is admitting with pride that indeed your dress looks nice or that you look good today etc. and are acting in pride. Another example of this is some nationalities offer a gift to someone and make sure they play it up big, “I got this in a very expensive store and paid much money for it.” They were taught to do this because one wanted the receiver to know how important and worthy they are to buy an expensive gift. However others are taught in humility to play it down, “It isn’t anything too special, just something I picked up.” on order that the person would not feel too uncomfortable or committed to the giver on account of an expensive gift. One might consider a person proud because he or she views another’s behavior in light of their own experiences and knowledge. The same is experienced even with people in the same culture but in different families.
After living in China with a number of people from different nationalities I made some observations regarding pride and humility.
When a person of one nationality would seek to express humility in one way the other nationality would think he was being proud. For instance: Here in America we are trained to say thank you when paid a compliment. If you say thank you to someone from another race they might think “thank you” is admitting with pride that indeed your dress looks nice or that you look good today etc. and are acting in pride. Another example of this is some nationalities offer a gift to someone and make sure they play it up big, “I got this in a very expensive store and paid much money for it.” They were taught to do this because one wanted the receiver to know how important and worthy they are to buy an expensive gift. However others are taught in humility to play it down, “It isn’t anything too special, just something I picked up.” on order that the person would not feel too uncomfortable or committed to the giver on account of an expensive gift. One might consider a person proud because he or she views another’s behavior in light of their own experiences and knowledge. The same is experienced even with people in the same culture but in different families. 
In pursuit of humility one of my favorite quotes the last five years is this quote by Ben Franklin. “Pride perceiving humility honorable sometimes borrows her cloak.” Any of us can “look” humble. We can become good actors. Ok, so why all this talk about humility? What matters most is - Are we truly humble before God or are we faking it before man? Has our cultural practices or personal convictions defined us before our great and Mighty God? Do we actually recognize the inconceivable greatness of God in comparison to our feeble humanity. And then do we ignore or implement the joyous truth that our frailty is covered by His clothing of grace. This is humility but probably incomplete in definition. Just my thoughts as i keep moving forward.
scenes from a favorite movie- "Pride and Prejudice"
1 comments:
Janie,
I love your observations of pride and humility between different nationalities.
"Do we actually recognize the inconceivable greatness of God in comparison to our feeble humanity?"
I recognized this when I sent my husband to Sudan. We just sent our first team from Harvest to Sudan and I've blogged about it. Would you consider posting a comment there on what you have experienced, learned, etc. having sent your dear one to Sudan?
I've enjoyed seeing your blog. I'll visit again.
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