I often have thought quite a bit about humility, but it’s very difficult to effectuate. It seems quite noble to be humble, yet I’ve yet to see any human nobility to apply it to themselves. It seems like a reasonable proposition to be humble, yet how does one go about being humble in the first place? If it was so easy, most all of us would do it, we pride ourselves in not being humble at all. For many, humility is a great sign of weakness, not meekness. It portrays a sense of giving and not receiving anything in return. Perhaps, that is the whole point of humility, but few base any credence on it. Maybe, it would be better if we gave a simple, but humble, definition of humility. Humility, defined, is a modest or low view of one’s own importance. That suggests that in order to be humble, one should view themselves as less important than others. It seems that there is a growing contradiction, here. For example, in modern society, importance claims its rightful stronghold on all those who hold it dear, and that happens to be the lot of us. After all, people of wealth, power, authority, artistic skills, and the like are viewed has gods who need to be sought after and worshipped. Now, that seems to be in contradistinction to being humble, isn’t it? But that is exactly the human condition, pride. Pride seems to be the opposite of humility. I think most people are proud, at least proud of something or someone. Pride has somehow replaced humility as the single most influential emotion on the planet. Pride has done so much good for humanity and, so much bad. Come to think of it, there is no place for humility because we are just too proud to drop our facades or positions in life, giving place to someone else. We deserve what we get and who we are. After all, pride states that you work hard enough, you gain respect and all the rest of it that goes along with pride. Pride does not listen, it knows (unfortunately, that’s not my saying, but nevertheless true). I have often wondered what would happen to the people in this world I’d we gave up pride for one month, ok, one day. What if we could replace pride with humility and think less of ourselves and give importance to those around us? What do you think would happen?
There is a story about a man who was humble, gentle, and lowly. He had been a man of great power, but he gave that all up to live among the poor. As a matter of fact, he had no wealth, no home, and had to go from house to house to eat. He sought the downtrodden, the poor, the disenfranchised. Perhaps, you can identify with this man, perhaps, you know who, he is or know of him? Well, he was a great listener. I think one has to be a great listener to be humble. He always gave kindness, gentleness, and generosity, even though he didn’t have much in, terms of earthly possessions. He was compassionate and loved everyone. He had a keen sense of who you were from the inside, out. He was shunned, disgraced, and often hated, yet he spoke of love. In the end, there was a trumped-up charge against him and he was jailed. Convinced he had orchestrated a capital crime against the government, they killed him. Isn’t it funny, one can tell that story to just about most people on the planet and they would come up with the man’s name, or would they? The point is, here was a man that thought humility was greater than pride. As a matter of fact, he thought the proud to be sinful and demonic. Pride was the absolute antithesis of his beliefs. Yet, although he didn’t last very long on this earth, only 33 years, he made an impact forever. His greatest weapon: love. Through love, he was able to humble himself and place all of us above his own importance. He did not confuse kindness with weakness. His humility left a lasting impression to all because of his grace and mercy to others. See, humility begets sacrifice. One sacrifices all he has for others. That is real strength. That is real power. That is real love. Unconditional love. To humble oneself for another, for all. And, it’s a full-time job. The real hard part is yourself. See, if have to take yourself out of the equation. If it’s about you, you’re probably wrong (that’s another saying I can’t take as mine). God loves the humble and hates the proud. Pride took humanity away from God. We thought we could do it without Him. We can’t. Eventually, everyone and everything dies, including the universe. The only One who remains is God. If you ever had one once of humility, please, use it for God. He’s waiting.