Excerpted from 2024 Lenten Guide: Terror and Amazement, a Lenten Guide for Lectionary Year B from the North Carolina Council of Churches.
Psalm 25:1-10
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in you I trust;
do not let me be put to shame;
do not let my enemies exult over me.
Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;
let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all day long.
Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!
Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right
and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
The Terror and Amazement of Humility.
Like everyone who has ever lived, I have been grappling with the aging process. As with all things, aging is a balance of loss and gain. What we lose in physical “beauty” or “strength” is balanced with the wisdom and knowledge gained from simply having lived through some things. The older I get, however, supposedly growing in knowledge and wisdom, the more I realize I don’t actually know very much. Furthermore, most of what I know about the world has been filtered through someone else’s perspective.
This realization is terrifying and humbling. If we have competing narratives of what is true or right, how can we take a stand on anything? Perhaps, a bit of humility can help. Believing we know the answer to all the world’s problems could be a problem in itself. Such self-assurance shuts down conversation and actually closes us off to information and ideas that might be useful. Furthermore, maybe it is not our job always to “know” what is true. While it is terrifying to accept the idea that we don’t have all the answers, the humility to admit this can be our best hope of finding answers, some of which can be amazing.
As we seek truth for ourselves, we must remember we all have a version of truth based on the variables that have influenced our lives. The bits and pieces from all of our truths can help us find the best way forward if we are humble enough to listen to one another. Finding truth from those around us—especially those who have experienced the world differently from our own experiences—can be the most amazing gift of all.
