"God’s beauty rises up from the ashes of our humility."

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book, Crazy Happy (p. 33). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)

Our ashes

Being humble is so important to God. He rewards it.

Daniel earlier said, "What God sees as beautiful is somebody willing to say, 'I bring nothing to my relationship with God except my own brokenness and sinfulness.' That feels kind of depressing to acknowledge, doesn’t it?"

He goes on, "Jesus drives smack-dab, head-on into a massive collision with our culture. The famous preacher Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said about being poor in spirit, 'It means a complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self-assurance and of self-reliance. It means a consciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God.'

"In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis put it this way:

    "Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call 'humble' nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him…

    "If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed."

Daniel continues, "Here’s my Original Fusco Translation of that: humility is allowing the true and living God to divorce each one of us from our complete and total obsession with ourselves. That’s the key to simplicity. And it’s really good news.

"Humility calls us to see things the way God sees them and see ourselves the way God sees us—that we are broken and flawed, and that we don’t get everything right. And we are helpless to heal ourselves on our own. (Ouch!)"

He then says, "God’s beauty rises up from the ashes of our humility. Then humility throws open the gates of the kingdom of God and leads us into the potential of a truly beautiful life.

"When we let go of our desperation to be right, we grow in our willingness and desire to walk in what is right. When that shift in our mindset happens, now all of a sudden we begin to say, 'Lord, I need you'—and really mean it."

And you see, don't you, how really important that is?

Yes, yes!