Regarding Others, Consider Them

Psalm 137:1-6(7-9), 144 • Psalm 104
Zech. 14:12-21 • Phil. 2:1-11 • Luke 19:41-48

Here’s a thought:

In humility, value others.

Paul (being Paul) goes way further than that when he writes to the church in Philippi. He says:

In humility regard others as better than yourselves.

That’s very hard to maintain on a regular basis, isn’t it? Unless you're a saint. Or a mom. Or a nurse.

Paul points to the example of Christ: the very greatest of the great let go of all great-ness and lived as a poor person who tried to teach and heal and feed folks. Paul himself was doing his best to follow Jesus’ example so, sure, it makes sense that when writing to others who were also trying to follow Jesus’ example, Paul would keep harping on this concept of humbly serving others.

But these days, most of us reading these ancient letters are not really trying to live a life that ends in execution by the state. We’ve got jobs and families and things to own. Most of us are just looking for a little peace of mind. The example of Christ is not something we are trying to follow, per se... we just admire it. We regard it with awe.

We reflect on it sometimes in the morning.

Perhaps it’s best if we just consider Paul’s advice in little manageable bits. Such as:

In humility, value others.

I’m not going to consider everyone better than me. That would mean changing the way I treat my whole family and all my co-workers and my students and my neighbors. It’s too much.

I’m just going to try a baby step here. Today when I see a person I’m just going to stop and think, “Hey, person in front of me, you have value.”

Maybe that’ll prompt me into treating them as if they were precious and important—not more than me, but valuable and precious and lovable nonetheless.

See what happens.

Written by Troy Schremmer

Troy works with preschool age children as an enrichment teacher in music and movement. He and his wife Jonny (who teaches older children) are both still at work. Many thanks for all the prayers for our family (and students and co-workers).