"Humiliations galore..."

"The pattern of Christ, as set before us in the New Testament, is in every case a pattern of humiliation, suffering, sacrifice." "In every case." This made me search for confirmation or otherwise of so strong a statement, though I knew that the writer (Westcott) would not have made it unless he had been sure that it was true. Perhaps the question comes, We have common work to do (gardening, sewing, cooking, and so on), what have these three great words, Humiliation, Suffering, Sacrifice, to do with us?

Humiliation: Do we like to be praised? Do we find it difficult if mistakes are shown? Which matters most to us--that the work should be well done or that people should know that we did that work? Is our "I" in the dust?

Suffering: When we stand for truth are we ever misunderstood? Then what do we do?

Sacrifice: What comes first in our choice--our Lord's wish or our own?

If we answer these questions honestly I think we shall understand how we can begin to learn to follow the pattern set by Christ our Lord. He must have begun to follow that pattern when, to the eyes of the village, He was just a boy in a carpenter's shop.

--from Edges of His Ways, by Amy Carmichael