Tag Archives: Humility

Taking The Low Seat

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What a unique season this has been for me; and for my family, for that matter. We have walked through waters that we were not ever expecting nor ready for, well, by the world’s standards we weren’t ready. We were ready in a different way, because that is the only way we have been able to get through.

In recent weeks, I have found myself returning to teachings that I found myself under during the early years of my faith. Back in 2016, I was invited to take part in a weekend event called Become Good Soil. This was a follow-up to my time at Wild at Heart the previous year and was a more intimate gathering of men. This weekend was a starting point for what would be and has been a decade plus of excavation. A time to commit to allowing God to continue to excavate the deepest parts of our hearts that have not gone well or were maybe atrophied and allow God to work in that space to rebuild us with solid roots or a solid foundation.

Now, nearly a decade later, I have found myself looking at what this time has been like. There has certainly been a lot of God things that have happened. I have been blessed to lead a ministry movement, counsel and walk with many people, and build many new friendships and alliances with many like-hearted people. It was certainly a fruitful time. In recent years, it has been very different. This week will be 2 years since leading our last men’s conference, The Anvil. After my son, Brandon, died last year, and then my wife, Amber, coming close to death a few months later, I found myself in a place where leading such an event would be a total disservice to the men that would come and to me. I could not lead with integrity when I was and am in the midst of such difficult times.

At the beginning of 2024, as I praying and asking God for words for the new year, the word “low seat” kept coming to my mind. At the time, I wasn’t sure what God was meaning by that, but I sat with it. I was and am in season of humbling, career wise, doing what has been necessary to make an income to support our home, while doing work as a delivery driver. It has been a necessary and humbling experience as well as a period of time to allow myself to reset. As Francis of Assisi is credited with stating, “We are to start with what is necessary, and in time we find ourselves doing what is possible, and in time and over time we will find ourselves doing what is impossible.”

So back to low seat. From a scripture standpoint, it takes me to Luke 14 where in verse 8, Jesus says, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down at the place of honor, since a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by the host.” Moving to verse 10-11 he says, “But when you are invited, go and sit down at the last place, so that when your host comes, he will stay to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; and then you will be honored in the presence of all who are at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself ill be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

So why does this stick out and what does this have to do with Become Good Soil and my time there in 2016. Well, one of the teachings that I received that weekend, came in simple statement. “Take the lowest seat until God makes it impossible to do otherwise.” It’s a statement of humility. Being willing to take a step back and not be “The man,” so to speak, until God makes it impossible to stay in that place and invites you further up and further in.

For several years, even as an early believer, I was, for lack of a better term, the man. I was the one leading the movement. Getting men out of their place of comfort and challenging them to venture into frontier waters in their walk with God. As part of an ally movement of ministry leaders, I have often been referred to as a General in the movement. There has been so much good in that space, and I am thankful to have been and still be part of an alliance of Kingdom world changers.

Now, don’t  read or hear what is not being said here. This was never anything that I sought out. It was all a God thing and God was in it. If you know me, personally, and especially before I really came to faith, you will agree that leading anything like this was way outside of anything you would think I would do. Just the idea of standing in front of people and speaking, my heart would race, and I began to drip with sweat. Even sitting down in one-to-one conversations would bring such a response. I often felt very disqualified. You would never see me in such a place, willingly. When God was in the picture, it became the thing I could not help but do. It was too important, I felt, and I allowed God to train me in it. It was training by fire, so to speak.

These days, as I have sat with those words of taking the low seat, I realized that this was that time. I have had the honor to kickstart a movement, but for the season, it has been necessary to step back. It hasn’t been the season to build and move to the next event or bring things to the next level. This has not come without difficulty. I am often asked about the next event, etc. Being willing to say not yet and be comfortable with that response has taken continued practice. This also applies to my daily work, as I have been resetting doing the necessary thing to get by, while this refining continues. I don’t think it is any coincidence that this is in the same season.

Willingly stepping back is not something that comes natural to so many. For men, especially, I think we have it in us to build; to kingdom (small k) build. Sometimes we are forced to step back when those kingdoms come crumbling down, whatever that looks like for different individuals. This is all part of our refinement and the journey of becoming more as God intended us to be.

Take the lowest seat until God makes it impossible to do otherwise. Until God makes it impossible to stay in that seat. With all the trials we have endured, I have found myself asking often of God, what next? Where are you leading me and my family next? The next thing may not be the next ministry movement or returning to The Anvil weekend. I don’t know. What I do know and what I keep being reminded of is that for now, we wait. As I prayed through words for 2025, God reaffirmed that need to wait for him. I’ll share those words another time.

In the meantime, I will continue pressing forward and waiting patiently for God. I sit with a grateful heart because I know this is a part of my becoming and only God’s goodness can and will come through it all, whatever that looks like. It may not always be fun, but I will humbly embrace the low seat while I’m in it.

Now, this does not mean checking out either. I’m grateful for the community of men, locally and nationally, that I get to be connected and do life with. I’m thankful for the brothers that continue to gather around my fire pit on Tuesday evenings as we process life and sharpen one another. I grateful for the council of allies I get to stay connected with and serve with as part of the mission of going after the hearts of men. We will keep going as God’s refining continues.

God’s Grace Is Enough

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In my study of 2 Corinthians, I was reading the first part of chapter 12 yesterday.  As I was reading and pondering this message, I realized that God’s timing in this was so awesome in this message and it is so relevant to everyday life.  I recall writing about this chapter some time ago regarding Paul’s discussion of being given a thorn in the flesh, and while he asked for it to be removed, he is reminded that it is there to keep him from becoming proud and exalting himself and Jesus reminds him that “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

This teaching is such a humbling reminder about life.  That thorn in the flesh can be anything in life that can come up and take the wind out of your sails.  I’ll use a sports comparison.  I’ve seen players that have had things going so easy and then become very comfortable.  They figure they have secured their place and all of a sudden they lose their place, whether it’s a starting role or something.  When something like this happens, how the player responds can make a world of difference.

You see, when we have these moments where all of sudden it seems like things that we’ve worked for are taken from us, you may be surprised to learn that through that, God is at work.  You see, His grace is all you need.  I have learned to recognize that He is using moments like this, like a athlete losing his starting role, as a way to humble him and remind him to lean to God through all the difficulties.  It is also a reminder that in this life, no matter what, be it sports, the business world, or anything, we have to work for everything.  Things are not just handed to us and we have earn our way.

The same holds true for our faith.  We are not guaranteed Heaven.  We are not guaranteed to be able to inherit the Kingdom that is made available.  It comes with work.  It comes with surrendering your life to Christ and then working day after day to be restored each day and sanctified daily.  There are some who believe that once you have professed your faith that’s it, you’re good to go.  I used to feel that way to some degree.  How wrong I was.

God’s grace is enough for all of us.  These challenges and trials we face, these thorns in the flesh are a constant reminder, if we are listening, to turn to Christ and call for His grace to fill us every day.  He is in control.

There is a saying that get’s passed around that I have heard time and again that says something like “God will never give you more than you can handle.”  There is so much wrong with this statement.  You see, along with the thorn in the flesh, Paul also adds that he is give a messenger from Satan to torment him.  The simple fact is that without the grace of God, we can’t handle these difficulties ourselves.  We can’t inherit the Kingdom without God’s grace.  We can’t make it through challenges in life and truly put on our new selves without God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit.  All of this comes through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

I’ve had many times in my life that have taught me this lesson.  I even had a challenge this week that came about that caused me to filled a lot of doubt and questions regarding that situation.  Reading these verses and then sitting in prayer contemplating them really opened up my eyes and reminded me that no matter what, I need to turn to God’s grace and realize that it is all I need.  His timing was perfect in this and I am ever grateful for what He opens my heart to see and hear.

Humility So Genuine

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Humility.  This is a word that has been on my heart for a number of days now.  As we started the New Year, I’ve continued to dive deeper into Scripture and working hard at walking with God deeper with scripture, prayer, and journaling my thoughts as I role through the morning.  On Saturday, as I continued my read through Philippians.  Something big stood out to me from Philippians 2.  The humility of Jesus.  Paul tells us to be humble, thinking of others over ourselves. In verse 5 that he writes that we must have the attitude that Jesus had.  Verses 6-8 from the NLT read:humility

“Though He was God, he did not think of equality with as something to cling to.  Instead, He gave up his divine privileges (emptied himself); He took the humble position of a slave and He was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”

This thought has crossed my mind before, but God really spoke this into my heart this week.  Humility.  The true humility of Jesus is something that we should look to have in our own lives.  I just found this so powerful to think about.  Here is Jesus.  As Paul writes, He is God, yet, Jesus came as fully man.  In his book, Beautiful Outlaw, John Eldredge, lays it out this way…

“The eternal Son of God, ‘Light of Light, Very God of Very God…one substance with the Father, spent nine months developing in Mary’s uterus.  Jesus passed through her birth canal. He had to learn to walk. The Word of God had to learn talk.  He who calls the stars by name had to learn the names of everything, just as you did. ‘This is a cup. Can you say cup? Cuuup.'”

It’s so fascinating to think about how this man, Jesus, humbled himself so much to walk on even playing field.  But think about it.  In order to open the way for us all, He needed to.  We were lost before Jesus, but the Father had us in mind from before the foundations of the earth and has been pursuing us since.  Jesus walking as the perfect lamb of God, fully human, although He was God showed us what we were always meant to be as God’s sons and daughters.  Our story did not begin at the Fall.  It goes way before that, to what we were created to be, inheriting a kingdom created and set aside for us.  Jesus came to restore us, so that we could once again claim that inheritance if we choose to follow Him.washing-feet-statue-2

As this was on my heart, it was very cool to hear the teaching Sunday morning, which went into John 13.  When I learned we were going there, I was floored, I knew God was really speaking this to me.  Here, Jesus gives us an example of his humility as he washes the feet of his disciples including Judas, even though Jesus knew he would betray Him.  Jesus humbled himself to serve others in this manner.  He says in verse 14 and 15, “And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to was each other’s feet. I have give you an example to follow.  Do as I have done to you.”  Jesus is showing us the humility that we should have in our lives.  Not putting ourselves above others.  Not striving for position or title, but rather living as who we are in Christ.

When I look back on my life, there was a time when I was all about striving for my own successes.  Making it to those high positions.  Striving for higher success and thinking that this was what mattered in life.  More degrees, greater position, higher salary, etc.  I have been humbled so much though in realizing that all of that led me to nothing.  This is because none of my efforts were done with the motives of serving Jesus and serving others, other than my own success and supporting my family.

God has shown me another way and is leading me in a way to serve others, serve Him, and seek the lost for His kingdom.  How humbling that all becomes.  I was reading and journaling yesterday morning and I came up with this.  “A life of self-reliance leads to emptiness and death. A life reliant on Jesus leads to a life of freedom, breakthrough, restoration, and coming fully alive.”  If we put our own self-centered ambitions above everything else, we will be humbled very quickly in the end and will be left with nothing.

I think God put this on my heart to remind me that I all I am doing needs to be done with Him as my motive.  Helping me to remember to not put myself above others. As Tim shared on Sunday, to seek God, not titles or position.  Even as a developing counselor and with the work God is leading me toward, it can be so easy to exalt myself in that and seek position, whether in a counseling practice, church, or wherever simply to make myself standout.  God’s reminding me that my efforts need to be only to seek His glory and advance His kingdom, not my own.

I’m grateful for this reminder God gave me.  I pray that it helps you as well.  Look at the humility of Jesus.  He is the example to follow.  Don’t think yourself above others.  None of us are are greater than the other.  We are all fallen. We are all sinners given a chance to be restored in through the finished works of Jesus Christ.

“The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.” – Augustine