Seek Humility & Find Unity

I have never been a fan of "one-uppers". You know, those people who chime in while you're in the middle of your story, only to stomp it out and share that they have done your story before, only bigger, better, braver, and stronger? I could talk about how much I worked one week, only for someone else to dive in and say they worked more. Or if I've had a wisdom tooth pulled, they had four pulled... and it was way bloodier, more painful, and cost them WAY more.

I fall into the one-upper trap a lot. Only because I hate it so much, so I one up others. It's mean, I know. But sometimes, you just want to jab that punch a little bit ahead of them. As I consider myself more and more when I do this, however, I realize that whenever someone is sharing something, I'm putting myself before them, rather than rallying for them.

Humility is something that seems to be against human nature. The business of people is not putting others ahead of you, it's getting ahead. But the very basis of humility is what cultivates unity and oneness. If you are working on a team with people, you don't try to one up each other. That kills teamwork. That essentially causes competition rather than camaraderie. We see a lot of "one-upping" in the Bible. And we see Jesus' example of humility too. We can choose between the two.

Jesus had the ultimate "one-up" on the disciples, yet He didn't jab them with self-centeredness. He empowered them and let them do their thing from time to time, so they could be ready for when He wasn't there anymore. He cultivated unity between them. In fact, Jesus prayed for unity among believers. He knows that this is the key to a strong body of believers. Not strong in the sense of pride and "better than everyone else", but strong in the sense of together. Of living life in a world that isn't ours. Of being one for a common mission.

There are many times we have to set our egos aside to be a listening ear, a supportive car ride, an understanding mind. Without humility, these things don't happen. Without humility, unity might as well be dead in a group. If every person in a team bragged and insisted that they are "the best", what good is that for a team?

As CS Lewis states, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less."

So how do you walk through life, not thinking about yourself when it comes to working with others? We look to Jesus. We try to see how He sees. Love how He loves. Live how He lived on this earth. It is a hard thing to grasp that Jesus was fully God and fully human. He struggled like we as humans did, and He has a full perspective as only God does. So did He struggle with humility? He never sinned, but did He struggle with how "human" the disciples could be? Or how "human" needy people could be?

Philippians gives us a little idea of this:

"Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
7 Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to Go and died a criminal's death on a cross." 

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Jesus strove for unity. He did so so much that He gave up His divine rights to be unified with us and died so we could be unified with Him. He even prays for unity in John 17 before He departed and left His followers on this Earth.

If you truly want to cultivate unity within your circles - your church, your family, your work, your small groups, your play groups, etc., stop putting yourself ahead, or at the same level as God. Start hearing people and relating, but not "one-upping". Love people, as Jesus loved while He walked this earth.

Scripture to Read:
John 17, Colossians 3:12

Questions to Ponder:
Have you ever had trouble working with someone on a team? How did it turn out?
How can we embrace the same attitude as Christ when it gets hard to stay humble and unified?
What does Jesus' prayer for His followers tell you about how He felt about unity?