Don’t Just Wink!

Soon after Harry Truman became President of the United States, veteran politician Sam Rayburn took him aside to give him some advice. He said, “From here on out, Mr. President, you’re going to have lots of people around you. They’ll try to put a wall around you and cut you off from any ideas but theirs. They’ll tell you what a great man you are, Harry. But you and I both know you’re not.”

For too many, today’s values make it difficult for us to be humble or even to understand talk about humility. They are pressured on all sides to resist this touchstone of Christian living. They are living in an age that exalts a more aggressive style of life. They buy into the supreme value of getting ahead — of grabbing all they can. But the easy acceptance of the “way things are” in a world of “winners” and “losers” adds up to the natural rejection of the Gospel standard of humility.…