On September 2, 2025, Jeremiah Johnson, a minister of the Word, posted a thought that struck me deeply.
His point was simple but piercing: just as God wants to deal with pride, He also wants to deal with false humility. Just as He addresses our busyness, He also addresses poor stewardship.
This resonated with me, because I see this tension often. Many of us want to avoid arrogance, but in doing so, we end up paralyzed—afraid to use the gifts God gave us. Jeremiah called for balance, but it raised a deeper question in my heart: how do we actually find that balance?
The Problem With Guardrails
If you try to avoid pride on one side and false humility on the other, you end up living between two “laws”:
- “I must not glorify myself.”
- “I must not bury my gifts.”
The result? You bounce back and forth between guardrails, sometimes falling into one ditch, then repenting, then hitting the other side. That’s what the law does—it can expose, but it doesn’t empower you to live rightly.
The real way forward isn’t found in obsessing over what not to do. It’s found in love.
Love Is the Track
Think of a train. Guardrails on the side are meant to keep it from falling off, but a train doesn’t steer by bumping from one guardrail to the other. It stays on the track.
Love is that track. When you move in love—love for God, love for people—you don’t have to live with constant self-analysis: “Am I being arrogant right now? Am I being too humble? Does this look like self-promotion?”
Instead, you act from the heart. You follow the Spirit’s lead.
Acting in Love, Not Fear
If you see someone in need and move in love to help, others might misinterpret it: “He’s showing off. She’s being self-promoting.” But your question isn’t, “How does this look?” It’s, “Am I acting in love?”
The same is true in worship. Too many believers stand paralyzed, afraid their expression will look like arrogance or performance. But worship isn’t about proving humility. It’s about freely expressing your love to God.
Living by the Spirit
This is the danger of man-made laws—we create extra rules to keep us “safe,” but they end up enslaving us. Living by the Spirit is different. It frees us from the cycle of falling, repenting, and falling again.
The Spirit leads us down one simple track: love. Love fulfills the law. Love keeps us from pride without forcing us into false humility. Love keeps us from burying our gifts, because it compels us to serve others.
So the next time you wrestle with the fear of arrogance or the trap of false humility, ask only this:
Am I moving in love?
If the answer is yes, then you are on the right track—and you don’t need to worry about the ditches.
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