Humility At Ground Zero

Saul of Tarsus found himself on the ground after being hit by a flashing light from Jesus’ glory. The ground is a place we don’t really want to be at, but one that is a profound good teacher. We feel powerless there because in contrast, we want to stand tall/ feel powerful, enough to affect our own destiny. But we, (humans) have not done a good job leading ourselves. Time and time again we prove that without God, we are doomed to fail. Genesis 11 is such example for us. The tower of Babel was to be the most magnificent in the world, and it became a disaster after a massive confusion. They wanted to make a name for themselves so, God was not in it. At the height of his career, Saul experienced being on the ground, which seemed foreign to him as he had never been in such situation before. He was powerless on the ground and blind. Christ invites us to join him on the ground, because he humbled himself to the lowest level of a servant so we can learn the ways of his Kingdom. Jesus was down-to-earth as we say in our vernacular. It was the only way to save us, to help us realize where we are at, our true disposition so that we can begin to close the gap towards our healing journey. Jesus meets us at that very place of our grieving and disappointment to help us grow more into God’s image and likeness. God is love. He wants us to become love like him. The disciples also met Jesus at the highest of their disappointment. They had pulled an all-night long shift and caught nothing. Jesus was standing on the beach and as we know that his name is Jehovah Jireh (Meaning the Lord will provide), he instructed them to put their nets on the right, and the bounty was beyond belief. Meeting Christ is that amazing, but it begins with pain and suffering. For Saul, it was blindness on the ground. For the disciples, it was loss/ disappointment over a failed livelihood fishing trip. Perhaps I need to pay more attention, learning from my pain and disappointments as to what the Lord is up to. Could some of these events in our lives be chisels to form or sculpture us into whom God intended us to be? I argue that from the perspective of ground zero (or in humility), we are able to tune into God’s vision. For example, Ananias was asked to call Saul, brother because Jesus asked him to. God knows our true brothers/sisters. God knew if it was up to us, Saul would have been dismissed! We would not have had the courage to understand that Saul was misguided but he had already become a disciple of Christ. Lo and behold Saul became Paul who left us all those epistles. We have to become sensitive to God's vision and discerning of God’s Kingdom wishes! Jesus revealed himself to Saul and to Ananias and is still revealing himself to us. the thing is, I am not sure if we are actually paying attention. His disciples did pay attention because at ground zero, they didn’t know their solution was, right in front of them standing at the beach. In what ways have we been looking for solutions outside God? It never works. It will never work. When a gang member is shot, on the ground, when he knows that the battle is ending and facing a certain death (visibly bleeding to death), what floods his mind first? Is it thoughts of love or thoughts of anger and regret? You see at ground zero, we are definitely not in control as we initially thought. Going out blazing with guns, we were never in control. Instead of being at the mercy of our emotions, we could look to Jesus who is standing right in front of us. He is the cornerstone that the builders rejected. The solution we never thought of in the first place. The real issue with us, is that up here where we are standing, we are often unaware of our position spiritually, we may think it’s not a problem worth our time when all seem to be well with us. Yet when at ground zero, suddenly we are awake and realize how far we need to go to get where Christ needs us to be. From the place of humility (On the ground), Saul knew he needed to recover his sight. The Lord showed him that he had been also blind spiritually (He was not pursuing what pleased Jesus). So, meeting Jesus face to face opened his eyes to a new spiritual reality. There was no need to pretend from that moment on. (I wonder if he was on his way to Damascus with a zeal that does not come from God?) God knows and sees everything, no need to hide: Just you and God. That’s the beauty of joining God at ground zero, the place of humility because we rest from everything: anger, unforgiveness, the tyranny of the issues of our world and begin to be restored to health a little more and more one day at a time. Make sure you come down to earth like Jesus did. He came down and became one of us so that we, in turn, can become divine like him. Amen.