"This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the king:
That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule."
Daniel 4:24-26
This is Daniel interpreting a dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. It's an interesting dream, because the king is told ahead of time why all of it would happen, and Daniel counsels him about it, but it all still ends up happening when he praises himself and doesn't remember God.
I think similar lessons happen in our lives, though hopefully they aren't quite as dramatic. We all have to learn some humility, and understand that God is (and should be) in charge, and that we're still learning, and that doing things God's way always makes more sense and works out better in the long run, even when it doesn't seem like it in the moment.
I'm of course not saying that lessons like this are easy. It is often very, very hard to let go of our ideas about ourselves being extra-super-cool and able to handle everything, and make all the best decisions, etc. It can hurt the ego. It's also really good for us in other ways though. As we learn that we are just not always as cool as we think, we often have more room in our lives to notice how cool other people are, and realize that some of them are actually better than we are at some things... which helps us learn to cooperate and work together. Humility, like all of our other lessons, is designed to help us, not hurt us.
Today, even though it might be hard for us, let's learn some humility. Let's remember that God is smarter and wiser and cooler, and that he will teach us how to be so much better if we can work on listening to and learning from him.
That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule."
Daniel 4:24-26
This is Daniel interpreting a dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. It's an interesting dream, because the king is told ahead of time why all of it would happen, and Daniel counsels him about it, but it all still ends up happening when he praises himself and doesn't remember God.
I think similar lessons happen in our lives, though hopefully they aren't quite as dramatic. We all have to learn some humility, and understand that God is (and should be) in charge, and that we're still learning, and that doing things God's way always makes more sense and works out better in the long run, even when it doesn't seem like it in the moment.
I'm of course not saying that lessons like this are easy. It is often very, very hard to let go of our ideas about ourselves being extra-super-cool and able to handle everything, and make all the best decisions, etc. It can hurt the ego. It's also really good for us in other ways though. As we learn that we are just not always as cool as we think, we often have more room in our lives to notice how cool other people are, and realize that some of them are actually better than we are at some things... which helps us learn to cooperate and work together. Humility, like all of our other lessons, is designed to help us, not hurt us.
Today, even though it might be hard for us, let's learn some humility. Let's remember that God is smarter and wiser and cooler, and that he will teach us how to be so much better if we can work on listening to and learning from him.
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