Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, May 13, 2026
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I was just reading this morning about humility and intellect. It was in the book The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. In Step Two, it dives deep into all the reasons, rationalizations, and hang-ups we have about God and why we addicts (and I believe all people) don’t want to believe that God can or will take an active role in our lives or, as the book says, “restore us to sanity.”
21 years ago when I came into food recovery and first read this text, I particularly resonated with the section about “the intellectually sufficient man or woman.” That was me. Paul can brag about being a highly educated Pharisee and a law-abiding, religiously observant Jew. I can brag about having a very high IQ, insanely fast mental processing speed, a good education, a Master’s Degree from Luther Seminary, and a lifetime of experience working with children and adults in a faith setting. But absolutely none of those things helped me fully experience the presence of God in my life. I did not feel in any way that it was in God that I lived and moved and had my being. For all of my knowledge about God, I didn’t know God very well at all. And so I was driven to try to be God in my own life—to control people and circumstances, to force systems to yield to my will, all with the best of intentions, truly. But there was zero humility in it. Feeling like the universe will cease to function if you don’t hold it together is a terrible burden and an incredible statement of hubris.
Then I read in the Twelve and Twelve (as it is known in shorthand) “We found many in A.A. who once thought as we did. They helped us get down to our right size. By their example, they showed us that humility and intellect could be compatible, provided we placed humility first.” (p.30)
In the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ, I have the humility to recognize that all my intellectual gifts are of no value in and of themselves. Instead, I take seriously his call to use whatever gifts I have in the service of my neighbor, my community, and all of creation. Then they become an extension of his gifts, and my actions an extension of his actions of sacrificial love.
What gifts can I offer Jesus for the sake of the world?
