Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Romans 12:1-5

Dear God, arrogance seems to be the operative word right now. I see it everywhere, and, on my Facebook feed, it seems to be coming more from the Christians than anyone else. I see it in the responses to COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, politics… So I think I’ll do a quick bulletin point list of what Paul is telling us here to see if I can extricate some truth and guidance from him/you.

• Offer my body as a living sacrifice.
• Do not conform to the patterns of the world.
• Be transformed by renewing my mind.
• Use my renewed mind to test and determine your will.
• Look at myself humbly and realistically.
• Realize that I have specific roles to play and I’m not intended to do it all.
• I need others in the body (Christian community) to be complete.

Father, I guess it all starts with dying to myself, humbly asking for your grace and forgiveness and then carrying that true humility to others as your ambassador and laborer. Help me to do that. Help me to love others well on your behalf. Help me to represent you. And help me to love and worship you like I should.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen