BACK HUMILITY 4'?m2f Humility: consider others better than yourselves LIZ -- (enters strolling, reading Bible, looks ahead) Hey, Amy, let me read you this. AMY -- (enters opposite) What are you reading, the Bible? LIZ -- Yes. It's Philippians... Let's see..., Chapter... two... verse three. AMY -- Oh, that's one of my memory verses. LIZ -- (reads) "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." (looks to Amy) Doesn't that sound a little strange to you? AMY -- Strange? What's so strange about it? LIZ -- Well, I'm a Christian now. AMY -- And... LIZ -- Well, that means I have eternal life. AMY -- And... LIZ -- Well, there's millions of people who DON'T have eternal life. That means I'm pretty hot stuff, doesn't it? Why should I be humble? AMY -- (smiles) You need to compare lists. LIZ -- I need to do what? AMY -- You need to compare lists. Close your eyes and imagine that you have two sheets of paper. LIZ -- (closes eyes) Alright, I'm imagining. I've got two sheets of paper. But they're both blank. AMY -- On the first piece of paper, imagine a list of all my sins. LIZ -- (opens eyes) YOUR sins?! I don't know all your sins! AMY -- Do your best. Write down on the list all the mistakes you can remember that I've ever made. LIZ -- (closes eyes) Alright. But it's going to be a pretty short list. You're a pretty straight shooter. Alright, let's see, okay, I've got a couple. And a couple of border-line sins. AMY -- You can even include things about me that irritate you... things that aren't necessarily sins. LIZ -- Oh, good. That doubles the size of the list. (opens eyes) No offense. AMY -- (smiles) None taken. LIZ -- Okay. (closes eyes) I've got two sheets of paper. What do you want on the other list? AMY -- On the other paper list all YOUR sins. LIZ -- My sins? You want me to list MY sins? AMY -- Yes. All the mistakes you've ever made in your entire life. LIZ -- Even before I met you? AMY -- Yes. You should even include all the sins that you never told anyone about. All the terrible thoughts you have about people you don't like, all the terrible degrading things you were going to say but never said, all the revenges that you planned but didn't have the courage to follow through on... LIZ -- (opens eyes) Hey, that's not fair. My list will be longer because I know more about my sins than yours... AMY -- Oh. Okay. Just to be fair, instead of listing MY sins, why don't you list the sins of someone in your family or someone else you've known all your life. LIZ -- (closes eyes) Oh, okay. My mother. No. (opens eyes) She's a goody two-shoes just like you. I'll do my sister. I've got lots of stuff on my sister. (closes eyes) Let's see, there's the... uh huh. and the uh huh. (opens eyes) Hey, wait a minute. This still isn't fair. AMY -- Why not? LIZ -- Even if I could remember all the sins she committed while we were growing up, I could never know ALL her sins! AMY -- Oh? Why not? LIZ -- Because I'm sure she committed a lot of sins that I didn't see. Plus I'm sure she committed lots of sins in her mind that noone else could ever know about..... Oh. AMY -- What's the matter? LIZ -- No matter who I choose to compare lists with, the list of my sins will ALWAYS be longer than anyone else's because I know my sins better than anyone else does. AMY -- Yes. LIZ -- Oh, so that's why Paul tells us to consider others better than ourselves. He's not telling us to PRETEND to be humble. If we compare lists, we've got a lot to be humble about. AMY -- (exiting swaggering) That may be true for SOME of us. LIZ -- (exiting opposite) Hey, YOUR list just got longer. ©2013 Bob Snook. Conditions for use: Do not sell any part of this script, even if you rewrite it. Pay no royalties, even if you make money from performances. You may reproduce and distribute this script freely, but all copies must contain this copyright statement. http://www.bobsnook.org email: [email protected] BACK |