I was seventeen or eighteen and living away from home for the first time. Like many eighteen year old males, I had a huge ego and thought way too highly of myself. I had just been laid off from my construction job, so I took a job with a company that owned and managed a mobile home park.

One of my first jobs was to crawl under one of the trailers and thaw out a sewage line that ran from a toilet. It had frozen in the extreme cold and burst. Now, to begin with, I am a big guy and I do not like to work in confined spaces. Secondly the thought of crawling around and thawing someone else’s toileting habits had no appeal for me at all. I needed the job though so under I went.

I had just crawled under the trailer when a mouse ran across my hand. I am not afraid of mice, but this one appeared out of nowhere and startled me. I instinctively tried to get out of the way and banged my head … hard. Mumbling all the way and nursing my aching head I crawled in further. The sewage had frozen on the ground, but I knew as soon as I started to heat things up it would melt.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before I was laying on my belly in someone else’s mess. The thawing and replacing the line did not take all that long, probably no more than a half an hour, but it seemed like forever. I was never so glad to be finished as that day.

When I crawled out, I took a break and went home, showered and changed. It was the perfect opportunity for a life lesson in humility; instead, I took it all the wrong way. My ego got in the way and I felt I was too good to be doing “that sort” of work. I didn’t last very long at that job.

Instead of being grateful for the job, which were in very short supply that winter, I developed an attitude. It was a childish response. It took many such experiences before I finally began to clue in.

Often in life God brings us to places to create a humble and teachable spirit in us. Sometimes we listen, but often times we get an attitude. What a silly response. The God of all creation wants to teach us something and draw us closer and we react like spoiled children.

God detests our arrogance.

Proverbs 8:13 NIV To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

He wants us to be humbly reliant on Him.

Micah 6:8 NIV 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.

He is the one who is all knowing, ever present and all powerful. To fight against what He knows to be best for us is simply silly.

Until next time may you submit to Him with a willing and humble spirit.

Kevin Corbin gleanings@gleaningsfromtheword.com http://gleaningsfromtheword.com