The 'Too' Trap
Do you know the feeling of walking into a room and being out of place? I tend to live in my head more than I should but I’ll find myself thinking, “what am I doing here; I don’t measure up with this group?” We’re often stacking ourselves up against others and in so doing it’s easy to feel deficient. C.S. Lewis says, “humility isn’t thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less.” That’s a great way to think about it!
Conversely, you may know the feeling of walking into a room, sizing everyone else up, and thinking, “I’ve got it going on!” Life’s funny that way. I haven’t changed who I am as a person and may have the same shirt on in both scenarios, yet my perception is polar opposite. We often measure our value in comparison to those around us and if we’re totally honest we’ve all experienced the too struggle. I’m too bad, too good, too short, too tall, too rich, too poor; we get the idea.
Is that the best way to go through life? Constantly measuring our value against those around us? Perhaps there’s a different perspective or different way of walking into a room that guards against the extremes of making too much or too little of ourselves?
In John’s account of Jesus’ life, John shares a story that happened on the night Jesus was betrayed. All the disciples are sitting around celebrating what would be their last meal together and all the sudden Jesus gets up, takes off His outer garments, and begins washing His disciples’ feet. If you think washing feet is gross, you’re right! But it gets way worse!
In the Roman Empire, if you didn’t have the late model chariot, you walked. Walking on dirty roads, in dirty sandals, led to dirty feet. Washing these dirty feet was a job for the rookie servant, a task so demeaning some slaves were not even permitted to perform it. And Jesus, in His scandalous way, strips down and starts scrubbing His disciples (did you get that!!) feet.
This is the part of the story I’m most familiar with and it’s shocking! But it’s only the second act of the story! Check out the first act in John 13:2-4:
“Now by the time of supper, the Devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray Him. Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into His hands, that He had come from God, and that He was going back to God. So He got up from supper, laid aside His robe,”…..you know the rest of the story.
In an instant, Jesus was presented with both extremes! On the one hand, He knew His friend was betraying Him. Not an acquaintance but a life companion for 3 years. If Jesus was looking at others to determine His value that would have been a shot to take.
On the other hand, Jesus knew His Father had given everything into His hands. All the power in the world was bestowed upon Him and what a thought that must have been! Every-thing was given into His hands!
With all these thoughts swirling in Jesus’ mind, He gets up, takes off His robe, and begins washing His disciples’ feet. Please let that sink in for just a moment. What’s the takeaway for us today? To avoid the extremes of thinking too little or too much of ourselves, we take the focus off ourselves and place it on God and others. That’s what Jesus did.
Rather than walking into a room and thinking how we stack up, we think, “how can I make a difference for others?” If you are a Christ follower, there’s no other way. Jesus said we can only find life by giving ours away.
Confession time: I struggle with this and I’d bet most of us do. We’re humans and comparison is just what we do, but I hope next time we walk into a room we’ll do so with a different lens. How can I serve and make a difference for someone else? But don’t take my word for it; give it a shot and see for yourself!