some thoughts

Humility: True Greatness. C. J. Mahaney. Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2005. 176 pages. (excerpt)

Review by Aron Gahagan

Many encounters with people leave us with a certain overall impression of who they really are, and what they’re really all about. Sometimes it’s “there goes a really genuine person.” Other times, maybe it’s “my, is she gracious!” Or perhaps, “how intelligent and articulate!” Or even the unfortunate “he sure seems to enjoy the sound of his own voice!” But with C. J. Mahaney, it’s not like any of those. It’s much different, actually. At least for me, when I come away from hearing him speak, or from reading his books, I think “this man is really all about the gospel. I think he genuinely knows God.”

C. J. Mahaney was the pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD for 27 years (before recently handing it over to Joshua Harris), and he currently serves full-time leading the church-planting organization Sovereign Grace Ministries. He has reason to battle pride; the Lord has blessed his ministry richly. Yet, through it all, he has remained truly great–that is, he has remained humble (though he would disagree!). In this book he aims to share his insights about pride and humility, and especially his practical steps at destroying the former and cultivating the latter in our every-day lives.

He begins by opening, and bringing home, the fact that “God [actively!] opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Recruiting a little help from John Stott, he adeptly presses the point that (as Stott has written), “At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend.” He then leads us through a gentle but penetrating heart-examination of our real thoughts about greatness in comparison with Scripture’s. Particularly helpful for me was the eye-opening insight that in Mark 10:42-45 Christ does not discourage the pursuit of greatness; he just radically realigns it: “whoever would be great among you must be your servant…For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

As good as the opening sections of this book are, Mahaney really begins to shine when he energetically switches gears from instructional and inspirational to roll-up-the-sleeves practical. His opening paragraphs of this section are so simple, yet so profound: merely understanding the “perils of pride” and the “promise of humilty” isn’t enough. We must actually set a purposeful course for the destruction of pride and the strengthening of humility in our life. Throughout the book he writes as to a dear friend, but his pastoral demeanor and experience really come through as he invests the rest of the book in recommending practical steps we can take to accomplish, by grace, these very goals. I was not at all surprised to read that these steps were taken from his own personal list–steps which he has been practicing for decades in his own battle. The helpful (and often humorous) steps range from deeper theological study, to playing golf as much as possible, to laughing at ourselves–a lot! For what it’s worth, it was in the middle of reading this part of the book that I realized how much I think I would really enjoy just being around C. J. Mahaney (with my ears open and mouth shut, of course!). An uncommon grace, humility, and warmth seem to really shine through his writing, and I would bet that he is no different one-on-one. I would also bet that it’s contagious!

Of course, that may be because I’ve seen C. J. in action. If I may say so, when I imagine what Paul must have been like (and perhaps even looked like!), I get a picture quite a bit like C. J. himself: great depth and spiritual wisdom humbly carried about with a distinctly joyful disposition. I can’t resist recommending that you give a listen to C. J.’s contagious laugh; if you read this book (and I hope you do), it may have that much more of an impact on you. Watch him talking seriously, joking lovingly, and living out what he writes about, with Albert J. Mohler, J. Ligon Duncan, and Mark Dever here (see especially clip number 3).

One thing I’ve come to appreciate about C. J. Mahaney is his untiring focus on the cross. He never seems to stray too far from the heart of gospel, no matter what “other” topic he may be writing (or speaking) about. And this book is no exception: he wraps up his time with us by offering one last heartfelt encouragement to cling to the gospel of Christ. This is a rich and pastoral book, full of warmth and wisdom. For its simplicity of style, and depth of content, and real-world applications, I would recommend it to anyone without reservation. His goals for the book were met, and (for this reader, anyway) met well. I hope you will read it; it’s one of those books that you will probably want to come back to again, and again.

…I know I will.