Still Ministries

Humility and Grasping and Clinging
May 27-26

Matthew 12:22-25
Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?

Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Jesus healed someone from his demons and they said he did this by a demon.
His wise response is amazing. Can a kingdom be divided against? Does a demon want to cure someone and give them sight and speech?

Jesus just continued to let his light shine and tells us to do the same. It is devastating that people can take the good we seek to do and call it evil. At first, it crushes the spirit inside of us. No wonder David says (in the psalms) that he would rather fall into the hands of God than the hands of men! God is always looking at the intentions of our heart and loving what we try to offer.

Jesus said to his disciples when he was sending them out, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household! (Matthew 19:24-25) There we have it. If we are followers of Jesus, we will experience the same kinds of judgments that he did. This might sound only like bad news but think about the journey to freedom this truth leads us to. We have to do our inner work with Jesus if we are going to be able to just keep walking in the light. And try to imagine not remaining devastated or crushed and having the grace to let it go and be free to carry on! Now that is formation!

HUMILITY AND LEADERSHIP
Day Three

Quote from Foster:
I am coming to see humility as among the most silent and unobtrusive of the inward works of the heart. And among the most important.

Foster says that the old and wise Lakota knew that man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that the lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. So, he kept his children “close to nature’s softening influence.”

Notice that he doesn’t refer to fighting over climate change or the ways we steward the earth, although these are important also. But he is talking about actually bending down near the earth, letting its beauty and humility touch us, ground us, soften us.

Think of the times when you have been hurting and you just had to get away…maybe to the forest, or out in country fields or by a lake…somewhere where the actual earth isn’t overshadowed with all our man-made buildings. We feel connected to ourselves and to God. We are soothed. Rustling
leaves, singing birds, wind, earth beneath our feet, out in wide open spaces. So much falls off of us. Maybe some of our pride and some of our hardness. Maybe not everything is as important as we thought it was. I can hear myself sigh. I can feel tears in my throat. An ache of knowing my need rises to my awareness.

I think that leaders need to take their socks and shoes off and stand barefoot on the earth and let the soft humility come back.