Before Honor ...

Proverbs 15:33 -- "The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor."

Leaning up against my red 1986 two-door Chevy Sprint, I casually glanced around at my fellow patrons of an old gas station.  I could see that others were successful in their endeavor to refuel their cars - but the mechanics of the gas pump continued to allude me. In the country of my child-hood, all gas was pumped by an attendant. There was no "self-serve" and it hadn't occured to me - on this, my very first pit-stop for gasoline - that things might be different in the U.S.

 Again, I inspected the the handle on the pump. For the life of me, I could not guess why there was no gas coming from it's nozzle.

Missionary Kids often find themselves discretely looking around in the hope that they might learn of some function or form in an unfamiliar environment. Usually this results in success. For example, when first stepping foot back on US soil as our family retired from the mission field in the Philippines, the Atlanta airport sported some fancy bathroom equipment - the likes of which I had never seen. It took a careful reconnoiter of other travelers using the sink for me to learn that the faucet was indeed functional without handles. One simply had to place their hands under the thing and the motion detecter located on the back of the sink would trigger the water valve. [fascinating!]

As I stood at the gas pump pretending to read the huge warning regarding fire safety, I could not figure out why my attempt to mimic those around me were not a success. Each time I placed the nozzle from the gas pump into my tank, nothing would come out and the lazy numbers on the gallon counter refused to flip. I finally gave up and went inside to ask the cashier for some instructions. 

No question about it, I felt intensely stupid as the woman behind the counter just looked at me with a slightly disdained expression while she informed me that I had to flip the leaver on the nozzle bracket upward. Only then would the trigger for the pump "unlock" and release the fuel. It was a small but crucial step that I could not witness from my "social shield" behind the large pump. Tucking my pride away while walking into the gas station was the only thing I could do to ensure my ride home would not leave me on the side of the road with an empty gas tank. And while I DID feel really inadequate, I had no choice but to stop and ask for help.

Sometimes - maybe more often than not - our pride gets in the way of our witness. Proverbs 15:33 addresses this issue by reminding us that "humility comes before honor." So often this is true! When we review the lives of those people that we consider honorable - stop and ask yourself - what makes this person honorable in my eyes? It's more likely to be a behavior they have rather than a label/title they automatically carry.

Jesus himself, was humble. He did not choose to be born in the circumstances befitting his title - and yet - he was the most honorable human being ever to walk this earth!