Humility rarely gets media coverage. Sports figures brag about their wins, while movie stars flaunt their mansions. In the spiritual world, however, humility takes center stage.
The prophet Micah described the basic principles of Jewish teaching: “to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.” The New Testament model for Christians is Jesus, who, as the Apostle Paul said, “humbled himself by becoming obedient, even to the point of death on a cross.”
Humble people may be quiet when a promotion passes them by. They don’t try to impress friends with their cars or their vacation destinations, nor do they brag about accomplishments.
At church, they’re the quiet folks in the background, who prepare the food and clean up afterward. They don’t expect a reward for their labor, because they’re following the one who said, “I have come not to be served but to serve.”
He put these words into action at the Last Supper, when he washed the dirty feet of his disciples, including Judas. Think of someone you know who wants to harm you. Would you wash that person’s smelly feet?
The path to becoming more humble is asking God for help. After all, there are no five easy steps to this virtue — and no diploma given for graduating from the School of Humility. We can pray God will change our hearts, so we’ll think of someone else first, instead of scrambling to grab the goodies ourselves.
Growing up, I was accustomed to battling with my older sister for nearly everything. When it came to cake and pies, we had a hard and fast rule. One sister did the cutting and the other sister got first choice.
I recall how long I studied the piece of cake, when it was my time to cut — and how carefully I scrutinized the placement of the knife. After all, it would be terrible if my sister managed to get a mouthful more than I did.
It’s important to realize humility doesn’t mean self-hatred. This virtue isn’t linked to low self-esteem that often leads to constant dieting and plastic surgery. In fact, healthy self-esteem can exist with humility, once we understand our inherent dignity comes from God, who loves us despite our flaws.
Anthony Bloom writes, “We must remember that all we possess is a gift. We exist because we have been willed into existence …. We have done nothing for it, it was not an act of our free will.”
If you walk into a roomful of people and ask the humble folks to raise their hands, you can bet the hand-raisers aren’t humble. Instead of talking about being virtuous, modest people perform charitable actions anonymously and don’t expect applause.
A woman who is an amazing pianist can still resist pride, once she acknowledges her talent is a gift. A fellow with a booming business can become humble after realizing his entire life is in bigger hands.
Once we see everything as a gift, we can stop bragging about our job, our family, our home, our talent. We can stand humbly before God, grateful for every blessing. And we can bask in the quiet joy of serving others, even when this means getting the smaller piece of cake.
Lorraine’s email address is lorrainevmurray@yahoo.com.
