{"id":285,"date":"2014-02-28T03:02:23","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T03:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=285"},"modified":"2014-08-12T21:59:16","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T21:59:16","slug":"a-rare-commodity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-rare-commodity\/","title":{"rendered":"A Rare Commodity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- [if gte mso 9]&gt;--><\/p>\n<p>You need to talk with Larry; he is a man of humility and great wisdom.\u00a0 These were the words my Pastor spoke to me after asking him, \u201cWho would be a good person to seek out for mentorship during my time in seminary?\u201d\u00a0 To be honest, his words surprised me.\u00a0 I\u2019m not quite sure what I expected, but I didn\u2019t expect a non-staff person by the name of Larry.\u00a0 Regardless of my issue with the name Larry, over the next four years I was able to watch and be cared for by an incredible model of humility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">A few days ago a student stopped me after class and asked me, \u201cWhat does it mean to be humble?\u201d\u00a0 Wow, great question.\u00a0 I began to think about a modern day example I could share with my student.\u00a0 My mind immediately went to Larry.\u00a0 I began to tell my student stories about Larry.\u00a0 See, Larry was one of <strong>\u201cthose guys\u201d<\/strong>, he simply embodied wisdom and humility.\u00a0 The way he conducted himself, his gentle manner, his ability to listen, and his simple presence always carried weight.\u00a0 When you were around him, you felt as if you were with a holy man.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/31.media.tumblr.com\/4be1b84e9879858926e902573bfcfe94\/tumblr_inline_n1oqplmJsT1rvyiy6.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">One day Larry shared with me his story.\u00a0 He was very clear to point out how God used the simple things of life to shape his soul.\u00a0 <strong>No flash, no lofty ministry positions, no seminary, just simple life to refine his soul.<\/strong>\u00a0 He shared about;<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">Getting married<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">Having kids<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">Learning how to discipline kids<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">Marital struggles<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">Loss of parents<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">Loss of job and finances<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">Releasing children to adulthood<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">And significant times of isolation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong>To Larry, life was the ultimate tool for producing humility.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">This past week while reading Isolation: A Place of Transformation in the Life of A Leader by Shelley Trebesch a was struck by the inward transformation which takes place before and after isolation.\u00a0 Primarily, a movement from performance orientation to freedom in humility.\u00a0 And to be frank, no one in my life has ever demonstrated this better then Larry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">In fact, the very meaning of the word humility has its root in the Latin humus, meaning <strong>\u201cof the earth\u201d<\/strong>.\u00a0 You could define the term as \u201cstaying grounded.\u201d\u00a0 During our time, Larry shared with me a key model of humility from church history that became a guide for his formation.\u00a0 It was called St. Benedict\u2019s Ladder of Humility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Benedict who lived in the 16<sup>th<\/sup> century has provided us with some great wisdom in the area of staying grounded.\u00a0 Well known for his love of God and care for others, Benedict had at his core the idea of staying grounded through the pursuit of humility.\u00a0 He created the following ladder to act as a guide to help serve as we pursue transformation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong>St. Benedict\u2019s Ladder of Humility<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Step 8 \u2013 Transformed into the Love of God<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Step 7 \u2013 Purposeful to speak less<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Step 6 \u2013 Deeply aware of being chief of all sinners<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Step 5 \u2013 Radical honesty to Others about our weaknesses<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Step 4 \u2013 Patience to accept the difficulty of others<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Step 3 \u2013 Willing to subject ourselves to direction of others<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Step 2 \u2013 Busy doing God\u2019s Will<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Step 1 \u2013 Fearful of God and Mindfulness of Him<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/31.media.tumblr.com\/e9687e84a932170907ada6867019572c\/tumblr_inline_n1oqzrF3GO1rvyiy6.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong>Simple Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">After Larry shared the previous ladder with me, he would simply ask the following questions.\u00a0 (Every time we got together, he asked the exact same questions):<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">How are you doing in your journey toward humility?<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">Where on the ladder would you currently place yourself?<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">What practices or people would you need to invite into your life to continue on the journey?<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\">What would you need to eliminate to continue on the journey?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I remember the last words Larry spoke with me. He said, \u201cRick, remember, humility is a rare commodity.\u00a0 Tend to your soul, your wife,\u00a0 your family, and don\u2019t miss out on the simple things of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong>I have come to learn that Larry and humility are both rare commodities.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Who is the Larry in your life \u2013 a loving voice continually encouraging you to stay grounded? How would you respond to Larry\u2019s questions?\u00a0 Have you embraced isolation as a formative practice, or have you tried to escape it\u2019s grip?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You need to talk with Larry; he is a man of humility and great wisdom.\u00a0 These were the words my Pastor spoke to me after asking him, \u201cWho would be a good person to seek out for mentorship during my time in seminary?\u201d\u00a0 To be honest, his words surprised me.\u00a0 I\u2019m not quite sure what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,116],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-trebesch","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1610,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions\/1610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}