I’m a Bum

“Oh, so you’re a bum,” the salesman said.

I was shopping for a commercial refrigerator for our church. This salesman, who I contacted via phone, asked some questions; then shifted to inquiring about my occupation.

Wrapping up my explanation, I said: “My activities revolve around ministry.”

I don’t know what triggered his you’re-a-bum conclusion, as the conversation ended rather quickly. As did the chance of him making a sale.

Now he hadn’t angered me in the slightest. I merely discounted the salesman as being rude. And totally wrong.

I thought: “I’m not a bum; I’m serving God.”

And then one day, I concluded: “I am a bum.”

Psalm 103:14-15 says: “For God knows how we are formed. He earnestly remembers and imprints on His heart that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone…”

One of the definitions of bum is “worthless.” Can you think of many things more worthless than dust? We are dust. It blows away; we are gone.

Kind of bursts our self-esteem bubble. So I simply concluded: “I’m a bum.” Worth-less compared to God.

A repeated theme in Psalm 103 is: “Those who fear Him (God).” And here “fear” might be better thought of as: awe, amazement, reverence, a holy fear, a clear recognition of how great and mighty God is compared to our tiny, insignificant existence. Thus our dust-like standing before God.

A clear grasp of the vast difference between God’s unfathomable magnitude and our mere humanity needs to be renewed often—preferably daily. One of the greatest men to ever live, John the Baptist, fully understood this.

Let his words regarding Jesus, be our words to live by: “He must become greater; I must become less.”