Today is the first Sunday of Lent, and to mark the occasion, we're beginning a brand new message series that we're calling Attitude Adjustment. And we're looking at a particular attitude adjustment that everybody can use and that every single one of us needs to make, everyone. In fact, the less you think you need to make this adjustment, the more you probably do. This attitude is actually a virtue. A virtue is a habit of high moral standard, and this virtue is, in a certain sense, the most fundamental virtue of all because it stands before, it lies beneath every other virtue. What we're talking about is humility.

While humility is critically important, it is often misunderstood. Many people think of humility as weakness, low self-esteem, lack of ambition, a conscious effort to minimize or downplay our accomplishments, a low opinion of yourself, or maybe even a bad opinion of yourself. None of that is humility. Neither is that a virtue. It is also not a mark of spiritual maturity. Humility is not a low opinion of yourself. It's a clear opinion of yourself. St. Bernard said, "Humility is knowledge of yourself as you really are." It's derived from a Latin word, humilitas, which gives us our English word, ground or grounded. To be humble is to be grounded, to be rooted.

To begin to unpack this important topic, we're going to take a look at the book of Deuteronomy, fifth book of the Bible. The first book, Genesis, tells the earliest history of Israel, ending with the Israelites in Egypt. The second book, Exodus, tells of their eventual enslavement in Egypt and their subsequent escape. The third and fourth books, Leviticus and Numbers, tells us all about their journey through the desert. Deuteronomy tells the end of that first part of the Bible and presents the final teaching of Moses to the Israelites before they enter the Promised Land and before he dies. The Israelites had been in the desert for 40 years. God's intention had been to bring them directly to the Promised Land, which was a matter of only several days' journey from Egypt. But in their impatience and ingratitude, in their arrogance, the Israelites sinned before God. So as a penance, they were forced to wander around until everybody in that sinful, prideful, arrogant generation had passed away. At this point in the story, God is calling the next generation of Israelites, and Moses is preparing them, teaching them about the past, and shaping a vision for their future.

Moses says that when they get to the land they are, first of all, to make an offering of their first fruits. This was about giving back to God first as a reminder that everything comes from Him. Then Moses teaches, "Then you shall declare before the Lord your God, 'My father was a wandering Aramean who came down to Egypt with a small household.'" This describes the Israelites' ancestor, Jacob, who lived in exile as a nomad. Moses is telling the Israelites that, in their worship, they are to remember their humble origins. He continues, "But there, in Egypt, He became a great nation, strong and numerous. When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us, imposing hard labor upon us, we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and He heard our cry." So this tribe of exiles, of nomads, eventually ends up as slaves in Egypt. A humble beginning humbled even further. But, in their oppression, they turn humbly to God and, in their humility, God heard their cry.

Moses continues, "He brought us out of Egypt with His strong hand and outstretched arm, with terrifying power, with signs and wonders, He brought to a land of milk and honey." It wasn't by their own power that the Israelites escaped from Egypt and slavery but because of God's strong hand and outstretched arm. It was God who parted the Red Sea. It was God who provided food in the desert. And now, it is God who is going to give them blessing and abundance in the Promised Land. So Moses concludes, "They should bow down low in His presence," as further physical proof of their humility.

Humility is difficult. It's challenging to be humble even when we want to be. Our pride gets in the way. We don't like to look bad or lose control. We do not want to admit when we're wrong. We do not like to say we're sorry. It's hard to be humble even when we want to be. And a lot of the time, we don't want to be. If I've been disrespected, I don't want humility, I want an apology. If I've been offended, I don't want humility, I want payback. If I've been hurt, I don't want humility, I want revenge. These are all reasons why we need to work on humility by adjusting our attitude.

We need to learn to see humility, not as something that lessens or diminishes or weakens us, but something that strengthens us, something that builds us up to be the person we want to be, the person that God calls us to be. We see humility in at least three basic ways. 

First of all, humility grounds us in the basic reality that there is a God and it's not me. Just like the Israelites, we have to recognize that God is God and everything we have comes from Him. Our tendency is to look at what we have, especially if we've worked hard, especially if we've been successful, and think we have it because of us. In fact, our achievements at work or school, our finances, even our family, they're all gifts from God. Don't get me wrong, our efforts matter a lot, but they must be recognized and understood in the context of what God has given us, of what God has done for us, of what God is doing for us right now.

Second, humility grounds us in the basic reality that we are made for relationships. Humility is incredibly helpful for success in any kind of relationship. If we can be humble, then we can be kind, because we are able to put the needs of others before our own. If we can be humble, we can be merciful, we can more easily receive and extend forgiveness because we can recognize our own faults and failures first. If we can be humble, we can be compassionate, because we have the ability to take the time to understand someone else's situation. Because it is so useful, because it is so helpful, because it is so attractive, humility is incredibly powerful in all of our relationships.

Third, humility grounds us in the basic reality that God insists on it before he's willing to act in our lives. You can be successful with God without being highly intelligent, clever in business, outstanding in finances. You can be successful with God and not be graceful in appearance or skillful in athletics. You don't need any of that to be successful with God, but you cannot be successful with God without humility. Case in point, the Israelites in the desert. In fact, the Bible tells us, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. God humbles those who exalt themselves but lifts up those who humble themselves. That's just the way things work. Humility is the soil, it's the ground on which God can work in our lives, growing, blessing, and favoring.

For all of those reasons, over the next few weeks, we're going to take time to look at the attitude of humility. Humility isn't thinking less of yourself. It's just thinking of yourself less.