"Humble Pie"

James 4:10..."Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up."

My dad was a deacon in our church and he may quite possibly be the most hospitable man I know. He always had missionaries in our home. We hosted missionaries to Indonesia, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Germany, Russia, and Africa to name a few. Many of them came on repeat stays with their families as they passed through our area on different fur lows.

My favorite thing about their visits were the stories they told about their daily lives in the villages they served in. The stories are endless, but this one was most humbling for me. It impressed upon me how important it is for us to accept people for who they are and not be judgemental about whether they are rich or poor or if they are a "have or have not" so to speak...everyone needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A missionary to a very poor village in Peru was visiting a family who had been attending services at the mission. The family invited him to stay for dinner. He said he always made it a practice not to ask what he was eating, he just ate what they ate. It being a poor village, he said he'd rather not know what he was feasting on. After having dinner, the lady of the house pointed out a lovely raisin pie resting on the window seal. She asked him if he would like a piece. Of course he couldn't turn down a piece of raisin pie. As she approached the window seal, all of the raisins flew away and he proceeded to enjoy his piece of custard pie with the family and then shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.

Sounds kind of gross, doesn't it? How humbling of him to go ahead and eat that nasty fly pie!
After thinking upon this story I thought, "WOW could I do that?" What if he hadn't eaten the pie? Could he have been a witness to this family?

So often we overlook people who really need God. We judge them on what they have or their living conditions. The truth is, they need the Lord just like we do. Sometimes I think we need to eat some humble pie. God will surely lift us up in his service if we consider that God is not a respecter of persons so why should we be.

Consider your service to God today...do you need to eat some humble pie?