I Count Myself as Nothing in Others’ Lives

With the exception of possibly our parents or children, the lesson I have learned recently is count yourself as nothing in anyone’s life. Most may not understand, but this is a good thing – not negative at all. In God’s eyes, you are everything and that is all that matters.

Throughout the Bible, there are verses telling us this. Luke 14 and Proverbs 25, for example. There are also words of wisdom said, such as, “you never know what someone else is going through or how they perceive a situation”. The Bible verses are meant to teach us humility and both teach us to consider others first. What I have found, however, is that in addition to teaching humility, it also brings me peace.

I believe humility is so much more than most of us contemplate. It has been one of the hardest things to reconcile for me and my life (at least up until the last year). Someone recently told me that something I wrote, in which I was trying to write in all humility, came across as simply I had low self-esteem. With that perception, my total goal and intentions were lost.

I have thought about and prayed on this for a couple of days now. How could something that was supposed to be about serving others and wanting the best for those others (whether I was the one to do it or someone else) cause the reader to think it was ONLY about me and my perception of myself? I realized that I put too much into explaining why I was taking the action that I was. I did so because I thought that this action may cause the reader to be disappointed in me and/or that they thought more of me than apparently they did. As a result, now, not only is the exact opposite of what I hoped would be the outcome, (to ensure they were being served best), has happened, but, also, a relationship is now severely damaged, if not totally dead.

While contemplating the above specific incident, I thought about so many times, recently and in the past, where I experienced pain or disappointment when people did not react, respond, or include me as I expected they would. I realized that it was because I was not as important to them as I thought. But the amazing thing was that I was at peace over all of it. I had truly progressed in my reconciliation. My self-esteem is higher than it has ever been, but not at the cost of stilling trying to learn how to be truly humble.

While I was cleaning the Chapel this morning, this thought crossed my mind. Do people think less of me, think that I am still self-demeaning myself, think I am only capable of doing menial or insubstantial work because I am willing to do just that. I take on the tasks no one wants to do. I take on the tasks that no one is willing to do. I take on the tasks that I think are important no matter how small or perceived demeaning. Jesus said to me- “For some, yes, but does it really matter?”. Light bulb moment!!!!!!

It is in recognizing my worth to my Creator, Savior, and Breath of Life that I finally am getting it. People’s perceptions are just that, perceptions. If I take the attitude that I count myself as nothing in others’ lives, I am allowing God to determine where I belong and how He will use either them or me in each others’ lives for His Glory. If I count myself as nothing in others’ lives, He just might say to me through them: “Friend, move up to a better place.”.