Walk Humbly

The last of the three things that Micah says God requires of us is to walk humbly with Him. 

To understand what it means to walk humbly with God, we first have to understand what is actually meant by humility. We are not talking about being quiet or well-behaved, the way that children are instructed to always keep a hand on the shopping cart, not touch anything, and not make a lot of noise. Humility is not a behavior; it is an attitude. It is an orientation of the heart.

Humility is knowing, and not forgetting, who we are and who God is. It is remembering that we are creatures and He, the Creator. It is living in such a way that we demonstrate, with every step, who is leading this journey that we are on, who blazed the trail, who called us to walk it in the first place.

A man once said, "The difference between us and God is that God never thinks He's us." This is the essence of humility - that we stop thinking we're God and recognize that God actually is.

This is a hard one for us. It means constantly pulling back and checking our assumptions. It means constantly pausing to ask for guidance. It means holding back from running off down that rabbit trail, no matter how good the meat looks, because God has not asked us to chase rabbits.

He's asked us to walk humbly.

It means that we pray honest prayers, truly seeking God's will and not just confirmation of our own. It means that when God speaks, we don't pout over it or stomp our feet in protest. It means when God starts to walk in one direction and invites us to come with Him, we go, even if two seconds ago, that wasn't the way that we were going. It means that we trust that He's leading somewhere and that, whether we get there or not, it's worth the journey.

It means that we depend on Him to provide where He has called us. Rather than relying on our own wisdom, we rely on His; we don't even need a travel bag. It means that when He says to do something, we do it, even if it's foolish in the eyes of the world. It means that every time we think we've finally got a grasp on our own lives, we understand that our lives are subject to change, and we look up to catch His eye and to see what He's thinking. 

It means that we ask questions, as many as we'd like, as long as we do so while our feet are moving. Humility isn't blind; it's curious. It isn't stagnant; it's relational. Humility is the idea that we keep coming back to Him again and again and again to put our live back into proper perspective. He's the one who knows; we're the ones who're curious. So we ask. We can't demand an answer, but we can ask for one. 

Walking humbly with God just means continuing to move as God has called us to move without letting our britches get too big. (When they get too big, they tend to fall off, and contrary to what some young men would have us believe, this is not exactly a fashion statement.) It means recognizing that every step we take is on a path marked by God for us. Even if we have to clear a bit of the brush away, this is not a trail we're blazing; it is a trail God is blazing through us. For we are but men, not gods. 

Humility reminds us of that.