Dear friend,
Perhaps you find that your life isn’t the story you would have drawn up for yourself. You’re single when your peers are married. You’re infertile when your community expects children. You’re deep in financial pressure despite your hard work. You lost a beloved career. Or if you’re like me, you’re disabled, while those around you are able-bodied. When I hear these words of Paul, I resonate with the group he speaks to: “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26).
Do you resonate with this description too? If so, you may face the temptation to believe that your life is less significant than others’ and you may feel ashamed of your lot in life. If this is what you’re struggling with, let me speak to you the same good news that God has spoken to my heart again and again: God is glorified in your lowliness.
Hear Paul’s next words, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). This is completely contrary to our natural minds. Our natural minds say, “Blessed are you who are rich now. Blessed are you who are full now, who laugh, and are spoken well of by everybody.” [1] But Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, weeping, excluded, and reviled.” [2] What are the blessings he speaks of? There is no greater blessing than this: our lowliness leads us to Christ.
“No majesty that we should look at him,” “no beauty that we should desire him, “despised,” “rejected,” “man of sorrows,” “acquainted with grief,” “stricken,” “afflicted,” and “crushed.” [3] Do any of these describe you? If so, then you’re tasting the experience of the Messiah. These words were written of Him. This is a garden of good news for you today. Pick a flower of good news:
- In your lowliness, you have a close friend in Jesus. (Hebrews 4:14-16)
- In your lowliness, you have an opportunity to know and experience Jesus more
fully as you participate in His sufferings. (Romans 6:5)
- In your lowliness, you can glorify God beautifully, just as Jesus did in His low
estate. (1 Peter 4:16)
- In your lowliness, the Spirit can guide you into deeper humility (Philippians 2:1- 11).
- In your lowliness, you have an opportunity to cease striving for your own
greatness and to instead delight in Christ’s, to acknowledge your own weakness
and delight in Christ’s strength. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
- In your lowliness and in lack, your love of worldly things can fade dim, and your
love of heavenly things can grow bright. (1 John 2:15-17)
These are but a small bouquet of flowers from the abundant garden of our riches in Christ. It is a garden that is veiled to the proud, but wide open to the humble and needy. Let these realities turn your eyes from your worldly lack to your heavenly riches. While you may feel ashamed over the lot in life that you’ve been given, it is the lot by which God will be most glorified in you and will bless you with all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3). It is a lot which holds a glorious purpose. It may look barren to the natural eye, but to the spiritual eye, it is teeming with life and glory.
Take heart—though life holds trials, Jesus has overcome the world. If you share in His sufferings, you will share in His glory. One day, you will stand so near the King that His light will warm your face, and all the shame of this world will be forgotten.
With hope,
Your Sister in Christ
[1]Luke 6:24-26
[2] Luke 6:20-23
[3] Isaiah 53:2-4
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