I just had a humbling moment. A humbling moment indeed.
I’m turning 40 in just a few days, and I wanted to invite a friend of mine to a gathering we’re having. My wife Katie has been running the invite online, and I’ve been feeding email addresses to her so she can put them on the list.
For some reason, a friend of mine popped in my head, and it occurred to me that I had not invited him and wanted to. So, I did what any sane person would do: I emailed him asking for his email address.
Yes, you read that correctly: I emailed him, asking for his email address. To make matters worse, it took me a few seconds to understand his understandably confused and hilarious response: “Did…did you just email me asking for my email address? I have so many questions, emotions, and feelings.”
My response was: “Wow. Just wow. I have nothing to say and have no idea what just happened.” I told him he could use that as blackmail against me if I ever ran for public office. (I guess he can’t now since I’m making it public with this blog post.)
Anyway, the worst part is, I can’t blame this on being “over the hill” since I haven’t turned 40 yet. (Which, by the way, for some reason I was under the impression that “over the hill” was 50. A friend of mine gently corrected me in informing me that no, “over the hill” means 40.)
My 11-year-old, 9-year-old and wife got a kick out of it as well.
Obviously, this has nothing to do with being a strategic family — except that, if this trend continues, one day I may stumble on strategicfamilies.com and ask Katie if she knows who runs that website.
Speaking of being humbled, Katie shared something profound this morning: maybe part of why potty training for our 4th child has been so rough (it’s been so rough, we’re not sure if we have actually done this before — except evidence suggests otherwise), is that God wants to use this to humble us. It is so good to be reminded that we are ultimately not in control. Humility — real humility where you actually realize your limitations and flaws and sins (not fake, contrived humility) — is a wonderful gift from the LORD. I got a little taste of that tonight, and it’s not good for the flesh, but it is good for the soul! (So is humor. Which I also got, and gave.)
What’s your humbling moment? Texting someone for their phone number? Asking others where your glasses are while they’re sitting on your head? Using a find-my-phone app with your phone to find your phone… Or like a friend of mine mentioned to me: after extensive use of a Kindle, pushing on a paperback book to define a word.
Share your humbling moments below! May they remind us of our frailty and more importantly, of the perfection of Christ.