When hiking, I always appreciate the markers along the way that point you in the direction of your desired destination, such as a lake or overlook.  Otherwise a person could spend hours hiking on wrong paths and never get to their destination.  When it comes to the path to God, Jesus makes it very clear that it begins with humility.  Take a moment and read Luke 14:1-11.  In it Jesus heals a person on the sabbath and then tells a parable about a banquet in which people try to push themselves ahead to the best seats. So how do this healing story and parable go together to make a point.  Look at the healing story, what were the religious leaders doing?  Watching, but not just watching with interest, they were watching with a critical eye to see if Jesus would break their so-called sabbath-laws by healing someone.  They could then, point to His law-breaking and feel smug in their own righteousness.  

Now note how in the parable Jesus warns against pushing oneself ahead at a banquet.  He probably wasn't just giving good social advice; it was a parable so the point of the parable is about life in God's kingdom.  People who push ahead in the kingdom do so because they think they deserve it and are not in need of God's grace and mercy.  So what we have here in this healing story and parable is a picture of pride.  Pride does two things in its self-righteousness.  It is critical of others who fail and perceives that it would be inappropriate for God to provide mercy and grace in those people's lives.  Prideful, self-righteous people perceive themselves as not in need of grace and mercy; they deserve God's generosity.  N.T Wright gives a great line related to this: "Pride, notoriously, is the great cloud which blots out the sun of God's generosity..."  Humility is the opposite.  A humble person doesn't focus on the failures of others, but is keenly aware of their own imperfections and approaches God seeking His generosity of grace and mercy. Just a additonal thought related to   

This past Sunday we focused on the reality choice which is to acknowledge we are not God and to chose to stop playing God in our lives and humbly seek Him and His leading for our lives.  In the sermon I concluded with a series of questions to reflect upon to test their own humility scale.  They were taken from Dr. Henry Cloud's book, "9 Things You Simply Must Do to succeed in Love and Life," pgs. 210, 211

• Are you able to say you are sorry to your children, spouse and coworkers when you fail them?
• Do you seek to understand situations and people before thinking you know the answer?
• How defensive are you when some one raises a concern about the way you did something?
• Do you ever think of a task or position in life as being beneath you?
• How about the attitude of entitlement…it is my right…is that all to prevalent?  Can you exhibit a spirit of gratitude?
• Are you able when someone is hurt by you to listen and understand how he or she is feeling and learn how you can make things better?
• Are you able to give up you need to look better than others? Instead our you able to embrace your imperfections and use them as a teacher and friend?