If you were to take a survey of what profession lacked the most humility, the people you talk to would most likely select athletes. Absurd player salaries, pervasive television coverage, and cutthroat business executives who operate teams as just one element of their larger profit-making enterprises, have supplanted the noble sportsmen who possessed integrity and the highest ideals of fairness, team spirit, and sacrifice. We can't imagine many of today's superstars reacting humbly or meekly to major adversity or a career-ending "bad break." Out of such a negative backdrop, let's briefly consider one positive example of humility from the past.
Lou Gerhig was one of the greatest players in baseball history. His career as a power-hitting first baseman with the New York Yankees ended just prior to World War II. His playing days were cut short in 1939 by the onset of a rare terminal disease of the nerves and muscles, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (popularly known now as "Lou Gerhig's Disease"). Gerhig handled himself well in the midst of suffering and personal disappointment. His exemplary behaviour culminated before a crowd of over 60,000 at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, "Lou Gerhig Day." There on the playing field in front of a clutter of microphones that beamed his voice to additional millions of radio listeners, Lou Gerhig concluded his remarks by saying, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." What a statement to make in light of his circumstances! His health steadily declined from that day until his death two years later.
As far as we know, Lou Gerhig was not a believer. Should not a believer whose life and eternity is controlled for good and glory by God react the same way if he were confronted with the same trial? We should if we realize that a second reason God sends trials is to humble us. He uses suffering to remind us not to think more confidently of our spiritual strengths than we should (Romans 12:3).
The wonderful testimony of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 provides one of the best Scripture illustrations of this principle: "There was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me -- to keep me from exalting myself!" (v. 7) Paul was mindful of the supernatural revelations he had been privileged to see, hear, and experience as part of his ministry. He had seen the exalted Jesus on several occasions after His resurrection and was even received up into the third heaven. As a result, Paul easily could have thought more highly of himself than was wise or acceptable to God.
To preserve his humility, God literally struck Paul with a very painful chronic problem, "a messenger of Satan." That tells us that the "thorn in the flesh" was a person. "Messenger" is angelos in Greek, and is sometimes translated "angel." The word is used 188 times in the New Testament and always refers to a person. In 2 Corinthians 12 it likely referred to a demon-possessed man leading the assault on Paul at Corinth.
The precise nature of Paul's problem is not as important as the point God was making to him -- and us. When we are blessed in places of spiritual service, God sometimes deems it necessary to allow Satan's messengers to batter us to keep us humble. Such troubles remind us that we have no strength in ourselves and He is the One who enables us to minister. Divine power is released through such weakness. When we are without strength we have to rest in His. Thus Paul said: "He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
(from The Power of Suffering by John MacAthur, Jr.)
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