Humility and Grace


The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, 
O God, you will not despise.

It is hard to imagine a more poignant illustration of this reality articulated in Psalm 51:17 than the story of how a Eric Lomax, a British prisoner during World War II at River Kwai, Thailand, decades years later forgave the Japanese interpreter who tortured him horribly during his captivity. 

During the 1980s after he retired, Lomax scoured news sources looking for information about Nagase Takashi. After Lomax read that Takashi was consumed by guilt over the torture of a British soldier, he initiated a meeting and the two were reconciled. 

“When we met, Nagase greeted me with a formal bow,” Mr. Lomax is quoted as saying on the web site of the Forgiveness Project. “I took his hand and said in Japanese, ‘Good morning, Mr. Nagase, how are you?’ He was trembling and crying, and he said over and over again: ‘I am so sorry, so very sorry.’ I had come with no sympathy for this man, and yet Nagase, through his complete humility, turned this around.” The two promised to stay in touch. Lomax died Monday at age 93.

This is the true meaning of Jeremiah 29:13-14: "When you seek me, you will find me...I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile." Eugene Peterson's "The Message" puts it more directly: "I'll turn things around for you and bring you home."

Imagine the anguish which otherwise would have continued to eat away at the two men had they not experienced reconciliation. This turning back to God, however they understood it, could not have come without humility--the utter emptying (Philippians 2:7) of one's pride, vanity, ambitions and excuses so that we stand before God in an attitude of utter obedience. Only then can we sing,

Let me hear joy and gladness,
that the body you have broken
may rejoice.
                                    (Psalm 51:8)

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