I might be less humble if I could actually fit into skinny jeans, but that is not my point.

Skinny jeans are trendy, but humility is a character quality Christ models for us that is a timeless principle that is to shape our life. It is an attitude that demonstrates we acknowledge God’s goodness and mercy in our life. I have been thinking about it lately, as a professor of mine asked us to write our own definition of humility off the top of our heads.

I wrote:

Humility– a character quality that demonstrates an individual or group is in need of forgiveness, willing to deny themselves for the sake of others, and understanding they possess weaknesses that make them dependent upon God and others.

But I haven’t been able to shake the thought, so I have continued to mull it over.

The key to humility seems to be sinking my teeth into the disparity between God and myself. I have a personal relationship with God. I am adopted as a son. I am a coheir with Christ. But there is a big difference between the Triune God and myself. One fundamental element of humility is understanding how significant of a gap there is between us; how big God is and how small I am. I’m not small because I am worthless. I am small because I am dependent.

Isaiah 66:1-2 “Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? ² All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

These verses that open Isaiah 66 illustrate the above mentioned reality that God is high above us and we are well below him. If this is the case, then sin must be a very big deal. That is why he dealt with it in a big way, sending Christ to dwell in the flesh, suffer many things, even death upon the Cross. With such a large disparity in our relationship to God, we must realize that offending this relationship is a particularly egregious offense. Humility means taking sin seriously. Jesus might be your homeboy, but genuine humility is an essential element and condition for substantive fellowship with God.