“Being Humble… Not So Easy”

I remember my friend Harold telling the story of the man who received a medal for being humble…. but they took it away when he began to wear it. Humility is often difficult to define and identify, especially in ourselves. Just because you’re sitting in the corner with a bag over your head doesn’t mean you’re humble.  

The term “humility” comes from the Latin word humilitas … “grounded, from the earth, from humus (earth)”. Humility is based on truth. How can a person be described in a truthful way. It’s not humility to portray oneself in a way that is not true. To be humble we need to know ourselves. This is not always easy and it may take a lifetime of work. 

As we come to know ourselves more fully we have opportunities to grow in humility. When we experience “pressure and stress” we often see aspects of our life that we weren’t aware of….”why am I upset that I didn’t receive that award… why am I downcast when I’ve been ignored in that conversation.”  This stress can reveal that too often I’m thinking about myself, preoccupied with how something affects me …. what about ME, ME, ME.

The scripture speaks a lot about humility and pride:

• “whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mt. 23:12)
• Pride goes before a fall (Prov. 16:18), but humility before honor. (Prov. 18:12)
• “ Odious to the Lord and to men is arrogance… the beginning of pride is man’s stubbornness in withdrawing his heart from his maker; for pride is the reservoir of sin… the roots of the proud God plucks up, to plant the humble in their place…” (Sirach 10:7-16)

It’s always good to discover things about ourselves, to get to know ourselves better ..… maybe “wonderful things” that we can rejoice and thank God for and “not good things” that we can repent of and ask God to help us overcome.  If the Lord reveals sin in us, it’s not to condemn us and put us down, it’s to help us change. No one wants to be proud…”it’s odious to God and to others and to us” …. but God will give us the grace to change… he reveals in order to heal… because he loves us.

In some ways I feel I’ve gotten to know myself more in the last 7 years than I had in the previous 70. (yes, I’ll be 77 in a few weeks) After the initial shock of seeing some things in myself that I’m not happy about, I realize that the Lord is helping me change… even at this later state in my life. I feel I am changing…I want to change…God is helping me. It’s all good. 

So when we are convicted of pride or any other defect, let’s not sit in the corner with a bag over our head…. let’s stand up, dance around a bit, smile and remember that God is helping us to change and that is really good news.