Content as a Child

REFLECTION QUOTES

“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”

~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

“Humility is the obverse side of confidence in God, whereas pride is the obverse side of confidence in self.”

~John Baille (1886-1960), Scottish theologian

“The transition from a sucking infant to a weaned child, from squalling baby to quiet son or daughter, is not smooth. It is stormy and noisy. It is no easy thing to quiet yourself: sooner may we calm the sea or rule the wind or tame a tiger than quiet ourselves. It is a pitched battle. The baby is denied expected comforts and flies into rages or sinks into sulks. There are sobs and struggles. The infant is facing its first great sorrow and it is in sore distress. But ‘to the weaned child his mother is his comfort though she has denied him comfort. It is a blessed mark of growth out of spiritual infancy when we can forgo the joys which once appeared to be essential, and can find our solace in him who denies them to us.’”

~Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

SERMON PASSAGE

1 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore.