Humble Pie Wine

Photo by Beth Galton / Styling by Barrett Washburne

Vernation—“the formation of new leaves in springtime.” I love trees in spring. The consistency among the variation and change is what fascinates me. Trees grow, lose branches, yield themselves to electrical lines, but though they may look different season to season their leaves look the same upon their return. Similarly I feel Christians are the same; from time to time we change and grow into greater degrees of godliness, yet it is the same grace, mercy, humility, hope, joy, love, peace, generosity, kindness, and patience which clothe us. The “clothing” of Christ never changes but always fits. 

Because of this, I think it’s easy to see why we return to various qualities of godliness again and again—the Lord may have worked us over on patience back in June of 2011 and then resurfaces it in 2019—that we might walk in deeper spiritual rhythms. In my own life I’m experiencing a rebudding of humility. Super-Christians might call this “conviction of the Holy Spirit,” but we’re gonna call it rebudding, because that’s more springy, and thus, thematically more appropriate for this post. 

“If I truly am the world’s best UNO player, how can I humbly share such news with everyone?”

Big questions that have crossed my path as of late have been, “Where, Lord, am I allowing pride to reign in my singularity of though?” “Is how I view the amount I am paid influenced by work, pride, or something else?” “Is how I view other peoples’ working or work ethic a platform for my pride to awake in my soul?” “If I truly am the world’s best UNO player, how can I humbly share such news with everyone?” See? Real. Authentic. Lifechanging. Questions.

I’ve found that in my own life, travel is a powerful venue for the Lord to answer questions and move and work and bring to life the reality of his word’s truths. This month I went on a trip with one of my favorite people in the world to the one-trick-pony-of-a-state: Arizona. Because he is in college and broke and I’m a canary traveller* (and because we are both adventure seekers who didn’t rent a car in advance and had to pay inordinate amounts of money to rent a car at 3am) we decided that our humble abode for the trip would be our Hyundai steed, priced its weight in gold. 

“before it leaves its Korean homeland, the in-house Hyundai priestess places an anti comfort-sleep spell upon the vehicle”

I don’t know what it is about sleeping in a car, but when it’s moving it is super easy to rest, no matter if you’re riding or driving. But. When the car is parked it becomes this sleep preventative torture vessel. The lumbar support is good, the seat comfy, the headrest adjustable for all your neck needs. Everything required for a good sleep just short of a baby mobile. But you probably didn’t know that before it leaves its Korean homeland, the in-house Hyundai priestess places an anti comfort-sleep spell upon the vehicle, rendering anyone trying to sleep in the stationary car awake as the noonday sun. Realizing that sleep would be impossible in the position I was in I did what anyone would do to combat the uncomfortableness—I removed my pants. 

It didn’t make a difference though, but for the duration of my sleep attempts throughout the week I remained pantless—whether we parked at a McDonalds, travelers’ stop, walmart, or airplane. Just kidding. Walmart has a pant clause. Anyway. There are not many things more humbling than unslumbering in your skivvies, being told you have to migrate from your parking spot in the wee hours of the morning. Even if you wear cool underwear, it is still a humbling experience. 

On top of the naturally humbling experiences involved with traveling, and my mind being directed toward the presence of my own daily pride, this month the Spirit guided me to a couple of books focusing on the humbling of soul: My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, Discipline: The Glad Surrender by Elizabeth Elliot, and Humility by Andrew Murray.

“It is simply the sense of entire nothingness, which comes when we see how truly God is all, and in which we make way for God to be all. - Andrew Murray”

Murray gives a quaint definition of humility, “It is simply the sense of entire nothingness, which comes when we see how truly God is all, and in which we make way for God to be all.”** The biblical scenario that jumps to my head is the first miracle that Jesus performs in his documented ministry: Jesus the Wedding Crasher. This can be found in John 2:1-12; to put it in short Jesus and the crew get invited to a wedding. Turns out the wedding is trash—prolly because of a bad wedding planner—and they run out of wine. Mary—Jesus’ mom—does a mom thing and tells Jesus to do something, he gives a divine eye roll, and then tells some house servants to fill with water the vessels used for washing hands and feet. Jesus then sneezes or something, and the water turns to aged wine. 

My mind goes to this passage when thinking of humility for a few reasons. Quite literally there is an entire nothingness when it comes to the wine and Jesus is given way to be all. Verse 11 tells us that this work manifested his glory and caused the disciples to believe. Humble circumstances have made way for God to have control. 

Another reason I think of humility with this is a quote I remember from camp this year by a guy named Chad Poe…prolly one of the best interpretations I’ve heard of this passage. “When Jesus enters he enters as guest but leaves as host.” I can’t think of a clearer picture of the demands of humility. Oh may the pilot of our souls never be us! Humility reigns in our actions when we hand over the reigns. A promise by Elliot that stuck me in this sense was, “Let us rest assured that God knows how to show His will to one who is willing to do it.”*** If we can have a confidence in handing over our inability to yield it to Christ’s ability, we forfeit our will and gain the wealth of heaven. How humble it is to pass the reigns of livelihood. Chambers caps off this thought with, “Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.”**** In humility, Christ is able to take dirty foot water and transform it into aged wine, even when we don’t even know it’s happening (v. 9).

“If we can have a confidence in handing over our inability to yield it to Christ’s ability, we forfeit our will and gain the wealth of heaven.”

The final thing that sticks out is the promise from 1 Peter 5, that whoever humbles himself before the Lord will be exalted in the right time. “The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you’ve saved the best till now!” The bridegroom had done nothing—divine humility is enacted and maintained only by the Lord. One cannot make himself humble apart from the inner and prompted workings of Christ in the soul. Very simply put, heavenly humility is imparted to us. I can be no more humble in my own strength than I can turn water to wine. Pride is far too potent in this lifetime for me to ever look past myself apart from a heavenly stirring. 

There are so many more things the Lord has been showing me about his work of humility in the life of a believer, and I am struggling often in trying to practice it. It is so easy to take credit before men and lose credit of soul. Fortunately for us when the Lord begins a work in us he maintains it. 

Here’s to losing ourselves and finding Christ.

*I’m cheep, cheep, cheep.

**Humility: Andrew Murray p. 12

***Discipline: Elizabeth Elliot p. 125

****My Utmost for His Highest: Oswald Chambers - March 19