The Invention That Was Given Away

In 1989, a British computer scientist named Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web while working at CERN in Switzerland. He created the system of hyperlinked documents that became the foundation of nearly everything we do online today — every website, every search, every click.

Here is what makes his story extraordinary: Berners-Lee never patented it. He gave it away freely, completely, without conditions. Industry analysts have estimated that if he had patented the web, he could have become the wealthiest person in human history. Instead, he chose to make it available to everyone. When asked why, he explained simply that the web could only reach its full potential if it remained free and open to all. Holding on too tightly would have strangled the very thing he created.

That sounds remarkably like what Paul describes in Philippians 2. Christ Jesus, "who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself." Jesus possessed something infinitely more valuable than any patent — divine glory itself — and He poured it out for the sake of others.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is holding what you have with open hands, trusting that what God accomplishes through your surrender will always be greater than anything you could have built by clutching it to your chest.