by Geoffrey Schmitt

Created on: February 17, 2010

Humility is one of life’s most difficult attitudes. How can one even humbly write about humility. There was a church who periodically gave out a humility award. It came with a pin. However, if the recipient wore it, the pin had to be taken back! I should perhaps be more serious about such an important topic. Yet, tongue in cheek seems to be, for me, the best approach.

Humility begins with the acknowledgement that everything we have, everything we are, is a gift from God.  Even anything we have gained from our own effort gives us nothing of which to boast. For the ability to have effort is itself a gift.  However, having stumbled upon the importance of humility and acknowledging its importance, how can we possibly achieve it? The very notion of achievement seems contrary to humility. Imagine saying to yourself, or God forbid, to someone else, “I’ve been making real progress in achieving humility!” The very thought is evidence to the contrary. It seems to me the beginning of progress towards a life of humility is to give up on achieving it.

Self centered pride is the original sin from which all others flow and from which the blood of Christ washes us clean, with no help from us.  The first step towards humility must therefore be gratitude and trust in Jesus.

The second step, in my humble opinion, of humility is to appreciate the unique giftedness of others. Even when we are sure there is no cure for stupid, we need to seek the mind of Christ and remember those times when we were the stupid one. The reverse is also true. We are tempted to be jealous of others. We see them as more talented, handsome, fortunate, etc. We need to remember God loves us just as much. Each of us has a calling and a purpose that is important in the Kingdom of God.

There is a quotation from Helen Keller that I find helpful.  “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”  Even this can be tricky. I just want to write 400 words on humility and make it the best 400 words on humility that has ever been written.  I don’t know if I’ll ever get this right, but thanks be to God Jesus loves me anyway.

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