Believers…should be obedient, always ready to do what is good. They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling.  Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone. Titus 3:1-2

Stick to your own knitting.  That’s a great piece of advice, but hard to do.

Why is it always easier to see where someone else is messing up, than it is to see our own failings?  “Stick to your own knitting” is another way of saying, pay attention to the knots and missed stitches in your own life—there are plenty of mess-ups to correct in our own lives to keep us busy!

This is perhaps the hardest when you clearly know a better way to do something than the person in authority over you does.  Scott told of the humility and discipline he had developed as a musician playing in groups when he did not share his ideas for how the leader of the group could improve the way the group was playing a piece.  He chose the humility of silence for the greater good of the music group, knowing that the leader had put in time, effort and planning into how he wanted a piece of music to be played.

Humility is the Jesus way:  The Bible book of Titus says, “Believers should always be ready to do what is good…they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone” (Titus 3:1-2). I am responsible to God for looking to my ways, not yours. Theologian Thomas Merton said, “One of the first things to learn if you want to be a contemplative is how to mind your own business.  Nothing is more suspicious in a person who seems holy, than an impatient desire to reform other people.”[1]

The Jesus way of true humility often calls for silence.

[1] Merton, T. (n.d.). New seeds of contemplation quotes by Thomas Merton (page 4 of 7). Goodreads. Retrieved August 25, 2022, from https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1133302-new-seeds-of-contemplation?page=4