"And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
Today, I attended a celebration of life of a man who had passed into his eternal reward on Wednesday. The eulogy was based on the scripture above. The talk, I am sure was superb, but the word that I continued to ruminate over, was the term HUMBLE!
Being humble is not something that there is a "How To" manual to instruct you in. You don't just wake up one morning and decide that you are going to start being humble in your actions. Sometimes, GOD has to allow you to be put into certain circumstances to show you just how much you "need" help from others.......just to survive.
When I experienced the brain hemorrhage six years ago, there became many "humbling" moments in my life. First off, I couldn't form sentences, then I couldn't walk. When I awoke from the COMA, I couldn't do many things. But the most humiliating thing I remember happened in the Rehabilitation Hospital. I was still "hemiplegic", meaning I had no movement on the right side of my body.
One of the first few nights in Rehab, I decided I needed to go to the restroom. In my mind, all I had to do was walk to the restroom a few feet away and relieve myself. My mind wasn't sharp enough to remember I still could not walk!!!
Around midnight that evening, I partially fell out of the bed and caused more trouble than "who would have thunk it"!! When nurses found me, my legs were still in bed, but the rest of my body was hanging off the bed and in the floor!
I thought about that Rehab experience today during the eulogy. In v.11 JESUS instructs us "For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted"! I had nurses from all over the hospital in my room trying to tend to me! My wife was notified via a phone call. That night, everyone was doing for me like I was a KING! And I thought I was so lowly because I could not walk!
I am the most BLESSED MAN alive today, as all of my physical abilities have been restored to me. There are a lot of things during the 52 day hospital stay I do not remember. I am told I should be glad! But I am thankful GOD allowed me to remember how HE can remove all inhibitions, and HE doesn't need our approval! Being "HUMBLE" is a gift that sometimes hard to accept, but the lesson is hard to forget!
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