“Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:29

I Apologize, Your Honor!

I used to think I was a humble person, which we know in itself is an oxymoron (a figure of speech with apparently contradictory statements). You know, if you think you’re humble, well, chances are you may be taking just a little bit of pride in that fine accomplishment, thus you are no longer humble!

It became apparent to me that I obviously could use more than a little tune-up in the humility area as I was called to jury duty recently. It’d been years since I’d actually sat on a jury to see it through start to finish, so I found myself caught up in the mechanics of the legal system for a couple of weeks. It was all quite interesting, and I really came to respect the attorneys and the judge and all the court workers, from the court recorder to the clerk and the bailiff—what a difficult job they have.

But the thing that stood out to me the most in this legal process was the use of four simple little words used in courtroom procedure. If I heard them once, I heard them twenty times, and each time they seemed to be penetrating deeper and deeper into my spirit, as I felt the Lord speaking to my heart. When an attorney was corrected by the judge, his response was—”I apologize, your honor.” But he didn’t just fulfill the obligatory reply he was taught in law school. No, you could feel, see, and hear the truth of his deep humility. In an instant, the atmosphere of the entire courtroom changed. Now, that’s powerful.

Witnessing these sincere, life-giving apologies in court made me think about some of my own behavior. Sure, I can say, “I’m s-o-r-r-y-y-y-y” in many instances, but it’s that little high-pitched whine at the end of the word “sorry” that betrays a stubborn, less-than-humble streak. The apology fulfills what’s expected of me, but somewhere deep inside I’m hanging onto a small bit (or huge hunk) of prideful self-righteousness. I’m sometimes not willing to admit I WAS WRONG.

And this matters, why? Well, as we know, God always looks at our hearts—sometimes even more than our actions. You can do all the “right stuff,” but still have a heart that isn’t right.

As we see what God sees in our hearts, we can agree right away and repent, or we can go “around the mountain again.” Personally, I’ve “yodeled” my disagreement with God’s assessment of things around quite a few mountains. But in the end, I can see His ways are right and true, and bring lasting rest.

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble (ouch) in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). We’re definitely all still learning here that in humility lies power to change the world.

Dear Lord, thank You for Your patience with us as we learn to yoke ourselves with You and Your ways. You never take Your eyes off of us, even when we mess up big time. Your precious blood covers all our mistakes, poor decisions, less-than-humble reactions, and anything else we can dream up. How can we ever thank You enough for this kind of love? Amen.