The Greatness of Humility

by Rolaant McKenzie

August 24, 2025

Life After People is a documentary television series hosted by the History Channel that ran for two seasons from 2008 to 2010 and began a third season in July 2025. It explores the thought experiment of what might become of planet Earth if all human beings suddenly vanished. While the program does not discuss possible causes for the disappearance of humanity, scientists, structural engineers, and other experts speculate about the impact of human absence on ecosystems and the structures and other traces of civilization left behind.

The program explores aspects of urban and biological decay and nature reclamation in particular locations such as skyscrapers, office buildings, bridges, roads, dams, and stadiums. Starting from day one and stretching many years into the future absent human presence, hypothetical dramatizations using computer-generated imagery (CGI) are employed based on historical examples of the sudden removal of humans from a geographical area, such as Pripyat, Ukraine SSR, Soviet Union, in 1986, the site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster.

American mathematician, mathematical historian, and leading science writer James R. Newman (1907-1966) explained entropy as the general trend of the universe toward death and disorder. That is why an unattended garden will be overtaken by weeds, neglected roads will crack and crumble, and abandoned houses will decay and fall into rubble.

The Renaissance Center in Detroit, the Aswan Dam in Egypt, the Eiffel Tower in France, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, and many other notable landmarks around the world featured in Life After People all illustrated the fact that multitudes of laborers, contractors, technicians, engineers, and other personnel are continuously needed to maintain land and urban infrastructure to forestall entropy and keep civilization functioning.

It is commonly accepted that those with significant wealth and power are the ones who keep the world running. While they do have a lot of influence, the truth is that it is the vast number of common folks who clean offices, remove the garbage, and maintain the distribution of food, water, and energy who do far more to preserve civilization and our way of life.

As we go about our work, it is good to remember these humble, largely taken-for-granted unsung heroes and greet them respectfully and thank them as they come to take out the trash or clean the restrooms. At one company where I worked some years ago, members of our team started a Christmas tradition where we would sign a card of thanks and include a monetary gift to the janitress who cleaned our area. It was our way of thanking her for her diligent work, which made it possible for us to do our jobs in a clean environment.

Whether you are considered someone of high status in society or a commoner, the Lord God is your Maker (Proverbs 22:2), who created you in His image (Genesis 1:26-27) and has granted a place in His kingdom for you through His Son Jesus (James 2:5). Let no one consider with disregard or disdain the humble, ordinary person, for doing so shows contempt for his Creator (Proverbs 14:31). Showing kindness instead honors God, who grants His true life, righteousness, and honor to those who trust in Jesus (Proverbs 21:21).

Consider the vastness of the universe, its trillions of galaxies, each one containing hundreds of billions of stars. From the smallest subatomic particle to the greatest galaxy, Jesus, the image of the invisible God, created them. In Him, these and all other things hold together (Colossians 1:15-20). When he considered the moon, the stars, and many other works of God’s hands, David, overcome with awe, wrote, “What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” (Psalm 8)

Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden started a real-life drama called Life After Sin, which brought decay, suffering, and death into the world that God made good (Romans 5:12-21). But Jesus, instead of remaining on His throne in heaven with all its privileges, set them aside and veiled His glory, took on human flesh, and became a commoner, a servant. He submitted Himself to His Father’s will (John 6:38; Luke 22:41-44), humbling Himself in obedience to death on the cross, where His shed blood took away completely the filth and garbage of our sins and replaced them with His perfect righteousness.

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11)

All who trust in Christ stand clean before God with His righteousness and will inherit a place where entropy is no more, and where “the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)

Believe in the Lord Jesus, who showed His greatness and majesty by humbling Himself to save lost sinners and grant a glorious future that will never decay and fade away, for He will always sustain it “by the word of His power.” (1 Peter 1:3-5; Hebrews 1:1-4)

© 2025 Rolaant McKenzie – All Rights Reserved

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