I love it when I get these common themes that keep popping up in my life. It reminds me that God is watching and that He’s gently nudging me in the right direction. Lately, the theme has been humility. Ugh, not an easy pill to swallow. I mean, it’s like those enormous Omega-3 pills (fishy burps and all).
Because this has been such a resounding gong the past couple of months, I decided to listen to a podcast on humility by Timothy Keller during a walk last week. He brought up something I had never really thought of before: Humility is being moth meek and brave. Oftentimes we think of meekness as weakness, but that’s not the case. Instead, meekness means being patient and gentle.
Then today I opened my Instagram and saw a video posted by Klein Tools. The video featured linemen hard at work with a voice clip of Jordan Peterson speaking in the background. There it was again—he was talking about the balance of bravery and meekness, aka humility.
“You should be an absolute monster and then you should learn how to control it…those who have swords and know how to use them but keep them sheathed will inherit the world.”
It goes without saying that a little meekness and bravery would go a long way for all of us. A little more humility could change the entire world, as Peterson suggests. But, let’s keep it simple. What if we started in our own households? In our own neighborhoods? In our own trades? As far as humility in the trades goes, I think linemen are expected to be brave, but seeing these rough-and-tumble guys as meek sometimes seems like a stretch. Still, it’s so necessary. In speaking with my own lineman, Spanky, he reminisced about how the trade has humbled him over the years. Of course, he is brave but he has also learned the need for meekness. As he went from apprentice (very humbling) to lineman to foreman and now “older” foreman (his words), he said his approach has changed. Whereas years ago he wanted to do it all his way, he is now more meek, more patient with his co-workers, and lets them do things their way (as long as that way is safe and effective, of course!)
Again, we can’t forget that in order to be humble, we must also be courageous. Hopefully, this upcoming series of children’s books, starting with “Light Up the World: When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Lineman,” will help you have these conversations with your kiddos. Conversations about being both meek and brave. Conversations about hard work and courage. Conversations that will help them to grow up and be wise, capable, kind and hard-working humans.
BOOK UPDATE: I spoke with my printer the other day and it seems that the book might be a week delayed (as with everything these days!) Thank you for bearing with me and being patient—trust me, I feel ya!
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