Christians influence best when humble

 Dr. John Weborg is a retired professor of mine.  He was long the most respected teacher at my Chicago seminary.  Dr. Weborg suffered from polio as a youth and consequently walked with a severe limp for the rest of his life.  Working on the family farm, he was slower than others but he carried his weight.  Through perseverance and faith, he overcame his physical challenges.  

 

Then his intellectual gift brought him to the city to study and teach.  He often told stories about how his disease had taught him to identify with the down-and-out.   In his younger years, he used the public transportation system of the city.  Climbing on buses was difficult.  Getting out of the way of city cabs was risky.  And the worst was using the elevated train system, or the “L” as locals call it.  You have to climb up a long set of stairs to get to the trains.  

 

Dr. Weborg would have to climb those awful stairs in the thick of rush hour to catch a train.  Chicagoans are not known for their patience.  People who were alert would run past him so they wouldn’t get caught behind the slow man with the cane.  Those who were stuck behind him often let him know that he was an inconvenience.

 

In a crowd, no one cared that this man was a scholar who trained hundreds of students for service around the world.  They only cared that he was in the way.  As crowds rushed past, they even berated him for slowing them down.  It made him think of the poor and the oppressed.  They, too, were in the way of others.  They were pushed about, ignored, and insulted.  Their lives didn’t matter to all the achievers who had places to go and important things to do.

 

During my senior year, Dr. Weborg hired me as his Teacher’s Assistant.  One of the most touching memories I have was a business lunch we had near the downtown office where I worked part-time.  I remember nothing of the lunch itself, only that my professor was willing to travel downtown to meet me.  In order to get there, he had to take the elevated train.

 

Dr. Weborg made people feel important whether they were students, colleagues or even strangers.  He respected opposing viewpoints.  He had friends in the diverse Chicago culture who were of different faiths and different lifestyles.  He was loved even by those who vehemently disagreed with him.  Dr. Weborg modeled the life of Christ, serving in weakness. 

 

I think about Dr. Weborg often during these days of loud and aggressive voices. We live in a world that prizes strength, visibility, and success even at the expense of civility.  However, scripture consistently teaches that God’s Kingdom advances through lives marked by weakness, humility, and dependence on God. Christian influence is less about asserting power and more about revealing Christ’s power made perfect in human frailty.

 

God assured the apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) Paul responded, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

 

In Christian life, weakness is not a liability. When believers acknowledge their insufficiency, they point beyond themselves to the sufficiency of Christ. Influence born from weakness is honest, disarming, and deeply human. It refuses pretense and invites others to encounter a God who meets people where they truly are. This life may seem unattainable, but I saw it beautifully modeled by my professor.

 

I doubt if anyone will ever compare me to Dr. Weborg, except maybe by contrast.  I have a temper.  I can be pushy.  I want to get my way.  Dr. Weborg is nothing like that, but I’ve never known a more influential man.  In quiet humility he marked my life and the life of every other student who had the privilege of sitting beneath his teaching.  I believe the church will be more influential when we return to the quiet humble example of the One we are made to serve.