Humility and 3 Ways to Cook a Beef Roast

The other day I went for a run. As I was running, I was listening to a podcast by Francis Chan about living a life of humility. Probably not the most get-up-and-get-moving listening choice, especially since half way through I was running and crying at the same time.

The gist of it was that humility is not about YOU being humble (quiet) about how great you are, or the great things you're doing for the Kingdom. Rather, being humble simply means, you don't think about yourself. You don't wake up in the morning and think about your needs first, you think about the needs of the people in your life that need a hand, a hug, a note of encouragement, a high five, a break.

Phil 2:3 says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."

Another verse that stuck out to me...

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

If you're familiar with Francis Chan (I'm reading his book with my Life Group and also recently subscribed to his podcast), than you know this is a big theme with him: acknowledging God's HUGENESS and our LITTLENESS and seriously being overwhelmed by it.

This struck me. You know how sometimes old concepts come to life for you in new ways? That's what's happening here for me.

I'm re-learning that humility is about me thinking about others first and how I can bless them before "blessing" myself AND (in my relationship with God), walking with him in a way that is constantly in worship and acknowledging his massiveness in the whole scheme of my life.

So, after my cry/run, God showed me humility with skin on last weekend, when my in-laws totally blessed us unexpectedly.

I won't give all the specifics, but I'll just say that my father-in-law is all about the meat. He gives meat to the people he loves. And the more meat he gives, probably the more he loves you.

And let's just say he loves us, A LOT!

In fact, this week, my challenge was to figure out how to cook a 4lb beef roast for two adults and two two-year-olds, without wasting any. And I'm proud to say, I did it. I will share the recipes for cooking once for 3 different meals in another post. We did beef and mashed potatoes, beef and asparagus over noodles, and beef stir-fry. And each night I was reminded (as the recipient of a humble act) how loved I am. How little I am and how HUGE God is.

We didn't go to them requesting meat. They were just aware that my husband was recently laid off, that we have three little mouths to feed and that it takes a little while to get a new business up and running (hooray, hubby is freelancing! more about that in another post).

They weren't thinking of themselves.

The amazing thing was that they had SO much joy, practicing humility. It was obvious that it made their day to bless us the way they did. I was so thankful to God for showing me this practical example of humility, right after he had challenged my thinking on my run last week.

It's a lesson I think God won't let me soon forget. Probably because I'll be cooking with the object lesson for the next month.