Another Lesson in Humility
If you were born and raised in Kansas, I want to apologize up front. You see, I used to make fun of Kansas.
I was born and raised I central IL and my parents used to go on mostly annual vacations. They had a pattern of going to the same destination for multiple years in a row. For example, we went to Lake Geneva (near Milwaukee) at a Presbyterian camp for 4 or 5 years straight.
One year, when I was about 12 or 13, my parents decided to vacation in Colorado (Pike’s Peak was the ultimate destination as I recall). My parents were motor-club members so they had the trip planned out by driving day in a set of maps. The first day driving made it somewhere in Kansas to spend the night. All I remember about that trip was the unending drive of flat expanse that had to be in western Kansas. The road seemed to go on forever with nothing much to see along the way (Remember this was way before they raised the interstate speed limit to 75). If my math is right, today it would be over 14 hours of driving from central IL to Denver and a couple hours south to Pike’s Peak.
When I became an actuary, I worked for Horace Mann Life Insurance Company in Springfield, IL (the teacher company). Anyway, at that time, we sold insurance in something like 38 states so we had conversations about different states. That is when I came up with a joke that Kansas could secede from the union and no one would know. Why I picked KS as a state to make that joke, I couldn’t tell you. However, even with moving to different states, that joke seemed to follow me to my new home.
Almost 25 years ago, God’s plan brought us to Topeka and the joke was transformed into God having a sense of humor by bringing us here after so many years of making fun of Kansas.
“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”- Philippians 2:1-4 ESV
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” - 1 Peter 5:6-7
After almost 25 years living in Kansas, I praise God that he brought us here. I’m fairly sure that my wife and son would agree. Kansas, in my assessment, is a gem hidden in the middle of the United States.
The reason I’ve been thinking about this is that I’m finding more and more examples of myself focusing on something that I believe is important only to hear from a friend who has a far worse situation to deal with than I do. For example, my wife who still works, was stressing out over a work situation. We got to the end of the week and I suggested going out to eat as a break to her. She confided to me that, indeed, she had been stressed out but just the night before had decided to turn the problem over to God and felt a sense of relief.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?..... “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” - Matthew 6:25, 34
Focus on God and let his sovereign plan unfold. This location is not your (ultimate) home.
