Tuesday

One for the Calendar

As holidays go, trying to add National Humiliation Day to the calendar would be a tough sell, wouldn't it?

But for followers of Christ, it might make sense.

One thing you rarely hear about the Pilgrims is that in addition to their famous Days of Thanksgiving, they held Days of "Humiliation"—fasting and praying as a reminder to humble themselves before God.

This wasn't just puritanical overkill, either.

Grace by Eric Enstrom
This famous image is actually a picture of a real man.
Enstrom photographed Charles Wilden praying in Minnesota in 1918.

In addition to their day-to-day discipleship, our spiritual ancestors held communal Days of Humiliation whenever they were desperate for God's guidance.

And they were often desperate.

Having been hounded out of England, they settled in Holland for over a decade until the prospect of the Spanish Inquisition spreading north finally drove them from Europe.

Before fleeing to the New World, fearing for their lives and the souls of their children, they cried out to the Lord with an "abundance of tears" in a day of "solemn humiliation."

Their inspiration was yet another historical event where God used the weak to humble the proud, choosing a scribe called Ezra and a ragtag remnant of Hebrews to do the seemingly impossible: rebuild Jerusalem—right in the midst of their enemies. "There at the river… I proclaimed a fast," Ezra recalled, "that we might humble ourselves before our God, and seek of Him a right way for us, and for our children, and for all our substance." (Ezra 8:21)

HOW THE PILGRIMS GOT THEIR NAME

Centuries later, as an anguished group of European refugees prepared to leave the world they knew for the complete unknown, they took comfort in remembering all the faithful before them who had been "strangers and pilgrims on the earth." (Hebrews 11:13)

Rather than looking to what they were leaving behind, America's Pilgrims "lifted up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits."

To me, this abject humility before God makes Thanksgiving all the more poignant: a day of fasting as a counterpoint to a day of feasting; a day of reminding ourselves that we don't deserve God's mercy, followed by a day of thanking Him for all He's given us.

In that light, Thanksgiving only truly has meaning as a disciple of Christ; without Him, it's just a vague act of gratitude to some agnostic spirit in the sky, a pause before pursuing more "happiness" on the consumerist hamster wheel.

As Christians, though, it's worth asking: Do we actively humble ourselves before God? Do we ever intentionally do without? Do we fast and pray?

What if some of Jesus' less palatable sayings—like "Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry" (Luke 6:25)—apply to us?

As we celebrate the legacy of our Nonconformist ancestors, Thanksgiving might also be a time to ponder what it means to be a Christian and an American, and how compatible these two identities are in the 21st century.

If you're actively seeking God's guidance this holiday season, maybe even crying out to Him with an "abundance of tears," I hope you'll take heart from these examples from the past: they aren't just stories; they're historical facts.

God has repeatedly used unlikely people and circumstances to accomplish the most unlikely feats, and He'll continue do so as long as we seek His will.

True Brits Linkwithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...