What goes through your mind as you walk toward the break room, join a lunch table, enter your apartment or dorm room, or pick up the phone to call someone? Some think about that person they’re going to talk to: what he may be doing at that time of day, what’s going on in her life, what challenges he may be experiencing, what blessings she is enjoying. If we’re honest, however, many of us enter that conversation with thoughts centered on our own lives and struggles, planning what we want to say or ask about ourselves.
Calling a friend for counsel or help is good and sometimes necessary. If that’s how we live our lives, however, seeing our personal situation as all-important and seldom considering what others are going through, we need to consider Paul’s instructions to the Philippians: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look out not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others”(Philippians 2:3-4).
In order for this to happen, we need to check our mindset. Paul further instructs, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men”(Philippians 2:5-7). We can’t come close to equaling the humility of Christ, but that’s what we’re to strive for.
Humility influences our actions. As mentioned above, it puts others first, maybe putting ourselves in their shoes, before striking up a conversation. It affects what we say and don’t say, what we do and don’t do. It thinks of ways to encourage those who need encouragement. It considers what other people’s needs and interests are, and it views those interests as more important than our own. It values the time of others and recognizes that others should not be kept waiting or feeling unable to free themselves from our lengthy conversations. It appreciates the responsibility of not being a hindrance to others by choosing to sin and thereby placing them in awkward situations because of their association with us. It influences our prayer life. Some people who can’t find the time to squeeze a prayer meeting into their lives or ask others for prayer requests are yet eager to make certain that their own requests are known to everyone.
The solution requires a conscious effort but is not complicated. We simply need to build within ourselves, with God’s help, an attitude which honestly views others as more important than ourselves.