Manufacturing Humility

Esther 5:9-13
Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king's gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. Calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife, Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials. "And that's not all," Haman added. "I'm the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow. But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king's gate."

During my second tour to Iraq, my ego was Haman sized. I was a combat veteran with inexperienced leadership, and I had just completed the Instructor Pilot course. I had medically evacuated hundreds of patients without a single accident. I was the Pilot in Command of several high profile missions in Iraq, and had coordinated several mass casualty situations. Nobody was going to tell me how to run my team or fly my missions. I should have known that pride comes before a fall.

One night my team was dispatched to fly a simple blood run, but I did not have a good feeling about the mission. I looked for every excuse to avoid the mission, but could not find one so we proceeded out to the aircraft. I was thinking about the marginal weather, and about the large power lines along the river near our destination.

I was clearly distracted and failed to notice that the engine inlet covers were installed. Both crew members cleared the engines, and my co-pilot started the engine torching it in the process. Everyone on the crew took responsibility for their part of the incident. My statements to the accident investigation team placed me at odds with my chain of command, and my Pilot in Command orders were pulled for 30 days.

My ego was instantly crushed, and the situation was equally miserable for those around me. God used that situation and several since to humble me. Since I returned from that tour, I started reading my Bible every day, and I am not the same man that I was before.

Romans 12:1-2
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Jesus is the epitome of humility. As I learn to be more like Him, I can see that my relationships with those around me are better and my marriage has grown stronger. Jesus, help me to be the man, father, and husband that you want me to be.