Still Ministries

05/29/2026

Humility and Grasping and Clinging
May 29-26

John 7:1-10
After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.
10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret.

I want to close my writings on humility with this temptation Jesus had from his own brothers to prove himself – to go big or go home. They scorned his way of working in secret as much as he could. He wouldn’t bite.

Think of it, his own brothers. He grew up with them. How hard that must have been for them. They could not believe that he was a prophet, let alone the Messiah. What made him better than they? They mocked his ways because they didn’t believe in him. They did not understand the kingdom way of humility. I wonder if it was harder for Jesus to take this challenge from his own brothers? What pain did it cost him and the human need he would have felt to belong?

He stayed the course. He waited until the brothers headed off and he went in secret to the festival.

The humility that we have pondered this year is costly, isn’t it? Yes, it is beautiful, it is freeing and many other things. But it is costly. In the face of misunderstanding, judgment, rejection, we choose humility, the way of Jesus. We commit, time and again, that it is the way, and we turn from all the grasping and clinging to explain ourselves, prove ourselves, fit in, etc.

It’s worth it though. I really think it is worth it. And I think that someday we will see even more just how worth it, it is.

05/28/2026

Humility and Grasping and Clinging
May 28-26

Luke 4:16-30
Jesus returns to Nazareth, where he had grown up. He goes into the temple and ends up being a reader of scripture. People are all happy with him, marveling, saying, “Wow, isn’t this Joseph and Mary’s son?”

Jesus proceeds to ruin it. He says something like, “You probably want to ask me to do in my hometown what I have done in other places.” And then he goes on to say that a prophet is never accepted in his home town. He refers to Elijah during the famine being sent to a widow elsewhere and to Elisha and how there were many lepers in Jerusalem but he didn’t heal any of them, just Nasman the Syrian. Then they got mad and were ready to throw him off a cliff.

On hearing this, all the people in the synagogue were enraged. They got up, drove Him out of the town, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him over the cliff. But Jesus passed through the crowd and went on His way.

I don’t know about you but I can blame myself for all that I don’t seem to make happen with some of the people closest to me. I certainly don’t experience loved ones wanting to throw me off a cliff but I do sometimes feel shut out of bringing God’s truth or goodness to the table. It’s all well and good that Debbie Collins (Laginskie) rose up out of the garbage pile she fell into. Wow, that Doug and Phyllis’ daughter, she really got cleaned up…that amazing. But if I try to go past that and start talking about opening up to Jesus in faith and see what he can do…well…that hasn’t always been so welcome.

Jesus…went on his way. And so must we.

05/27/2026

Humility and Grasping and Clinging
May 27-26

Matthew 12:22-25
Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?

Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Jesus healed someone from his demons and they said he did this by a demon.
His wise response is amazing. Can a kingdom be divided against? Does a demon want to cure someone and give them sight and speech?

Jesus just continued to let his light shine and tells us to do the same. It is devastating that people can take the good we seek to do and call it evil. At first, it crushes the spirit inside of us. No wonder David says (in the psalms) that he would rather fall into the hands of God than the hands of men! God is always looking at the intentions of our heart and loving what we try to offer.

Jesus said to his disciples when he was sending them out, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household! (Matthew 19:24-25) There we have it. If we are followers of Jesus, we will experience the same kinds of judgments that he did. This might sound only like bad news but think about the journey to freedom this truth leads us to. We have to do our inner work with Jesus if we are going to be able to just keep walking in the light. And try to imagine not remaining devastated or crushed and having the grace to let it go and be free to carry on! Now that is formation!

05/26/2026

Humility and Grasping and Clinging
May 26-26

Matthew 11:18-19
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’: the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.

First, I have to climb over the fact that people called God Himself a glutton and a drunkard for going into people’s homes and eating and drinking with them. Being a friend of tax collectors and sinners seems tamer. Just saying.

Jesus never defended himself. He didn’t say something like, “How can you call me a glutton and a drunkard? I am simply going and being with the people I have created. I am sharing a meal with them, listening to them, enjoying them.” That would be me. Then things would get worse. They would have a comeback and then I would try and make them understand another way…more words, more explanations.

You really can’t change people’s minds about you. If they have decided what they think you are or what they think you are doing, its usually been ruminating for quite awhile in their minds, hashed over in conversations with others who will readily agree and maybe even add to the story, creating such deep roots that the story has become one hundred percent true, hands down. I hate that and I am sure you do too. It is judgmental, opinionated, and even mean.

Jesus does not step into the trap; he stays outside of the places where there is no openness to see or understand – where there is no space for looking at your own side life and why you might be judging in the first place.

He says, “Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” The Spirit of wisdom in our lives, the way we choose to live, the things we do and the motives by which we do them will prove goodness in the end. Of course, unlike Jesus, we will not be flawless but we can let the fight to prove our purity lay down and just carry on. Everything will be clear in the end.

I have sucked at this. But I think I am catching on a bit more.

05/25/2026

Grasping and Clinging
Philippians 2:6
Though He was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to grasp.

This is the last week that I will write down my thoughts and desires towards humility. At the end of this week, I’ll be taking a break for the summer in order to compile the writings from a few years ago into a book: What are we Going to do about the Earrings. In the fall I will write again, and I will be asking God what might be helpful to share for our formation in Christ!

But grasping and clinging. Jesus didn’t do it. In all the ways people didn’t treat him as he deserved, as One equal with God as One of the Trinity, he did not try to grasp at it. He didn’t grasp for what was already his. I think about what his non-grasping looked like.

He didn’t defend himself or try to make people see the truth about himself. He was accused of so many things – being a devil, blasphemous, false motives for the good he did for people. He didn’t give in to what people thought he should do in order for them to believe in who he really was. He knew better. The scriptures say that “He trusted no man, for he knew what was in a man.” (Trusting here meaning entrusting himself into what men would say or how they would be loyal to him.) He was who he was without anyone telling him or agreeing with him. He didn’t alter who he was to win anyone’s approval and he didn’t seek to convince anyone of his motives or character…he knew who he was and he made sure he only answered to One…everyone else only got his love.

05/18/2026

This week I am sharing a bit more personally so I won't be posting on Facebook - only on my blog that goes out to those who are signed up. If you would like to have my writings sent to your email box each morning, go to my website and follow the instructions to sign up!
https://www.stillministries.net/

I'll write on Facebook again next week to finish the nine-month journey on humility.

Welcome to Still Ministries. In addition to providing one on one spiritual direction and supervision for spiritual directors, Debbie offers a variety of contemplative spaces for your soul.

05/15/2026

HUMILITY AND LEADERSHIP
Day Five

Come, I have something beautiful for you to wear
I feel fussed over, like a bride who is being dressed by her bridesmaids
It is soft white and it almost caresses my skin
I can hear the Holy Trinity talking as they clothe me
Delighting in the places it lay smooth against my body
And where it can be taken out or cinched in should the need arise

They stood back after they brought me to the mirror
I wished that I could join in their delight
But oh, I was so disappointed that there was no colour to the garment at all
They waited in silence for a bit and then came close and said,
“The garment of humility will take on the colours around it;
Like a gem held to the light, it will hold the colours of love.”

They comforted me that it would take awhile
To get used to this garment of humility
That often my eyes would still be arrested
By the bright and bold colours that allure the ego
But in time, I would see how those colours fade
While the garment of humility lasts forever

“Come and stand in the middle of us,” They said.
I slowly made my way into the centre
Enfolded in their shining love
Drenched in belonging and joy
Of wonder and purity and freedom
Every colour of the rainbow dancing upon the garment
Like a child, I hugged it to myself and knew…humility is full of the glory of God.

05/14/2026

HUMILITY AND LEADERSHIP
Day Four

Andrew Murray says that humility is the first and most essential element of discipleship.

What have we thought is important to discipleship in our generation?
Developing evangelical skills, memorizing scriptures or growing in supernatural prayer?

Then – what is really scary to ask is, “What do we think is the most important thing to do as a church? Get x number of baptisms a year, increase “membership,” build bigger and better programs, etc.

What would people inside and outside the typical church say about what they sense is important? Humility?

This morning, I prayed, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us, for we are sinners.” I pray this, not because I think that Jesus sees us as sinners (he doesn’t!) or because I think sin is dominating us or that we are losers. I say it because we need mercy for all the ways we don’t see when we sin. And in light of our topic, for all the ways we don’t esteem the value of humility.

05/13/2026

HUMILITY AND LEADERSHIP
Day Three

Quote from Foster:
I am coming to see humility as among the most silent and unobtrusive of the inward works of the heart. And among the most important.

Foster says that the old and wise Lakota knew that man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that the lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. So, he kept his children “close to nature’s softening influence.”

Notice that he doesn’t refer to fighting over climate change or the ways we steward the earth, although these are important also. But he is talking about actually bending down near the earth, letting its beauty and humility touch us, ground us, soften us.

Think of the times when you have been hurting and you just had to get away…maybe to the forest, or out in country fields or by a lake…somewhere where the actual earth isn’t overshadowed with all our man-made buildings. We feel connected to ourselves and to God. We are soothed. Rustling
leaves, singing birds, wind, earth beneath our feet, out in wide open spaces. So much falls off of us. Maybe some of our pride and some of our hardness. Maybe not everything is as important as we thought it was. I can hear myself sigh. I can feel tears in my throat. An ache of knowing my need rises to my awareness.

I think that leaders need to take their socks and shoes off and stand barefoot on the earth and let the soft humility come back.

05/12/2026

HUMILITY AND LEADERSHIP
Day Two

Foster points to John Milton and his famous sonnet, “When I Consider How My Light is Spent.” Sometimes it is titled, “On His Blindness.” Milton is struggling with his personal tragedy of his coming blindness. And not only his blindness but human tragedies of every sort. He wrestles with these fragilities and wonders how we can serve God with such limiting capacities.
In the sonnet, he answers his own wrestling’s, breaking through to such gold,

That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.”

God does not need our work or our gifts – not really. How we truly serve him best is to bear Christ’s mild yoke, to stand and wait upon Him and only go when he calls…because so much else is just us trying to get somewhere within ourselves that isn’t where we really need to go.

I think about being a leader – what is the highest thing to model or to point to? All kinds of impressive works or programs or achievements? No…oh to see it clearly so late in life…to bear the humble yoke of Christ and ever wait on him.

05/11/2026

HUMILITY IN LEADERSHIP
Day One

Foster reminisces about a more mature Peter in his first letter, where he counsels elders on how they are to tend the flock of God (1 Peter 5:1-5). Foster says he is quite taken by the gentleness of Peter’s instructions to those with leadership responsibilities. “Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock.” Next, he gives counsel to the younger ones to “accept the authority of the elders.” Finally, he gives wise instruction to both groups, “elders” and “younger.” All of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Here’s Eugene Peterson’s rendering of the passage in The Message:
But all of you, leaders and followers alike, are to be down to earth with each other, for – God has had it with the proud, but takes delight in just plain people.
I think about God delighting in the way I deal with others – how I am down to earth with them. Feet on the ground, same clothes of humility given by Christ. I wonder what it would be like to think about this even for a whole day in every interaction I might have…to imagine the Holy Trinity delighting in how we are with each other. Wow.